I haven't bought a new CD in quite some time and here's the reason why, free online music. I am especially drawn to the free radio stations. They broaden my musical horizons and introduce me to new artists that I would have never thought of listening to before. So for this post I thought I would share with you some of my favorite places to listen to and download free music on the web.

http://www.accuradio.com

Accuradio is definitely one of my favorites. It's the first online radio that I found that lets you customize your listening. My favorite station is Modern Rock Classics with the sub-station Alternative 90's. You can customize your listening even further by telling it what bands or groups you don't want to hear. Pausing live streaming radio is also a perk and if you just don't like the song that's currently playing you can skip it and try the next one. By clicking on the cover art of the song album you can learn more about the artist and purchase if you so desire. They do take time out every once in awhile to share an ad or two but I have never found them to be as intrusive as traditional radio. Swinging Pop Standards is another Fav. Check out the sub-station Cole Porter Songbook.

http://musicovery.com

Musicovery is an interactive webRadio that lets you customize your listening based on your mood. You can then take it further by choosing genre and decade. The music is then mapped out on your screen so you can hop from song to song if you like. Register as a user to save your music history.

http://finetune.com

Finetune lets you create play lists that can be shared. You have to register with this site, but it's free. They call themselves "the 'mixed tape' evolved." Once you sign up and create your first play list they will offer you artist recommendations.

http://pandora.com

Pandora is free internet radio that is based on the Music Genome Project. Once you register, you create stations based on favorite songs or artists. Then you listen to the selections that are offered and tell them if they have chosen wisely for you or if they missed on that selection, further customizing your station and making it your own. Pandora will remember your choices and try to offer you songs that fit more closely to your preferences in the future.

http://songza.com/

Songza is another neat online music search engine and internet Jukebox. Let's say you have a sudden urge to listen to Green Day. You type Green Day into the search box and click search. It will pull up a list of songs by that artist and you can pick and choose what you want to listen to. This site is newer to me so I haven't had a chance to try out all of its other cool features. Let me know what you think.

http://freekidsmusic.com

This is a really cool kids music site. You can download free mp3's from quality, independent kids music artists. I love the fact that they have so many choices to choose from. As a parent of a young child, I appreciate being able to find quality kids music that I can stand to hear over and over again.

These next 2 sites are free online music tools that I just couldn't not add to this list. The first one is Metronome Online. This site makes it so easy for me to set tempos while I score read at my desk. It also beats spending tons of money on fancy metronomes. The other site is an extremely comprehensive music dictionary that all musicians should have bookmarked somewhere.