So Grooveshark had to shut down after battling it out in courts for years and continuing operations in the meantime.

With the site down, existing users may take the suggestions into account that the Grooveshark team posted on the official website or, look for alternatives elsewhere.

One of the better ones -- in my opinion -- that not many may have on the radar at all is NetEase Music. The biggest caveat right now is that it is a Chinese site with no English translation.

While it can be difficult at first to find your way around the site, automatic translation of the interface may help with that.

If you are using Google Chrome you get that right away while Firefox users may want to use Quick Translator or one of the other add-ons available for the browser that add translation capabilities to it.

Once you get accustomed to the site you will notice that it has a lot to offer. First, you can play music right away without registration or geo-restrictions. (Note: I cannot possible test access to the service from all regions of the world but as it stands, it seems free of any restrictions).

Just click on any song, album or playlist to play it right in the interface. While a focus of the site is Chinese and Japanese music, you will find Western artists and bands supported as well.

A search for Enimen for instance returns 300 singles, links to the artists profile on the site and highlights related artists on top of that.

If you select Find Music > Leaderboard, you find various playlists that may be of interest. For instance, you find listed there UK and US Billboard charts as well as iTunes charts among others.

To start playing all songs simply select the playlist you are interested in and hit the play button afterwards.

There is also lyrics and playlists. If you click on the paylist icon when a song is playing you get lyrics that play along with the song so that you can sing along if you want.

The site offers apps and desktop programs that you can download and install on your systems. According to information on the download page, it features more than one million 320 Kbps tracks alone without mentioning whether lower quality tracks are available on top of that.

The program brings the service to your desktop. It is difficult to understand what is going on as it is only available in Chinese and without translation options. Still, you can use the search at the top to find tracks or artists and play the tracks directly in the program.

Closing Words

The language barrier may keep you from using all site features but the ones that are available for free are definitely worth a closer look.

While you won't find as many songs as on YouTube, the selection is quite excellent especially if you are into contemporary music or Chinese/Japanese/Korean music as you get a lot of those.

All in all an excellent music resource that is as unrestricted as it gets.

Summary Article Name Need a Grooveshark alternative? NetEase Music may be it Description NetEase Music is a Chinese music site that is offering unrestricted access to its music catalog. Author Martin Brinkman

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