Free Streaming Music: Favtape

A great website for free streaming music online is Favtape.com. Inspired by the now defunct Muxtape service and powered by the music search engine Seeqpod, Favtape allows you to create playlists of songs that can be shared, embedded, and listened to for free.

You can listen to music on the site for free, without any account. But to create a playlist, you need an account. This process is remarkably easy. Just type in your email, username and password on the homepage. You’ll be taken to a new homepage where you can manage your “favtapes” (playlists).

Now you can make your first playlist. Start by finding a song to start with. There are a couple ways to do this. A good start is to search for songs by artist, title, or other keyword. When you find a song, click “Add to Tape.” Just create a new playlist and then add the song.

You can also view the iTunes Top 100 chart, as well as iTunes’ charts for each genre. You can view top hits from each year since 1900. You can even import your last.fm and Pandora bookmarks – one of my favorite features.

One downside to this site is it can be very slow sometimes. For example, as I write this I’m trying to log into my Favtape account in order to confirm some facts. The page has been loading for several minutes already. Usually the site works considerably faster, though.

For legal reasons, you cannot download any songs you find on favtape – at least not for free. Links are available to buy tracks from Amazon.com. You can click to view music videos, lyrics, and similar music. You can even twitter songs that you like.

In short, Favtape.com is one of the best free streaming music services online, but lacks a few features that could make it considerably better. If you’re mainly interested in free streaming music, playlists, and last.fm or Pandora integreation, check it out. If you’re looking for speed or downloadable tracks, consider one of the alternatives.