Clark Howard's Tips

August 20, 2008

One of Clark's beloved free online music sites -- Pandora.com -- might be getting ready to go the way of the dodo. They're going broke because of some obscure rulings concerning compensation for artists and labels. In essence, they're being hit with "tariffs" on every song that are prohibitively high.

Pandora has long offered a free legal alternative to stealing music. The website uses artificial intelligence to play an endless stream of music suited to your personal tastes.

But as one door closes, a window opens. GrooveShark.com is another site Clark has discovered that allows you to both listen to and download music online for free.

For those who just want to listen to music -- but not own it -- there's GrooveShark Lite. This jukebox-style option allows you to stream music on your computer for free -- similar to Pandora.

Unlike Pandora, however, GrooveShark gives you the option to download free music via a credit system. For every song you upload, GrooveShark gives you credits that can be used to "pay" for downloading songs that others may have available. The rarer the track you upload, the more credits you'll receive.

No music in your collection to upload? No worries. You can just pay 99 cents/song -- much like iTunes -- for every download.

With GrooveShark, you get to own everything you download. They handle all the compensation for artists, labels and uploaders.

Here's Clark's take on the whole GrooveShark issue: In an era where 99% of all downloaded songs are stolen, this gives you another opportunity to do the right thing.

He suggests parents use GrooveShark to teach their children right from wrong when it comes to Internet music piracy.

Consumer advice courtesy of