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Your Guide to Streaming Music Websites

By Adam Baer

Sure, everyone loves iTunes. But now and then you might want to hear a variety of songs without having to buy them individually. That’s where music-streaming services come in. Real Simple road-tested six of the most popular options.*

Last.fm

Website: last.fm.

Cost: Free with commercials; $3 a month for commercial-free listening and mobile access.

How it Works: Name favorite artists to create a custom radio station. Or use the free tool, the Scrobbler. It analyzes your music choices to provide recommendations from the 14.7 million tunes in the collection.

Cool Perks: Users get local concert suggestions and entertaining stats and graphs about their listening habits.

Drawbacks: You can’t store and listen to your Last.fm music offline. No Beatles.

Best for: Budget-minded listeners looking for music similar to what they already know and like.

*All information was current at press time.

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