Investing in new music doesn’t have to be expensive. From YouTube to Spotify, we bring you the best in FREE music streaming and downloading - no need for any of that illegal business...

YouTube

One of the most popular choices is video sharing site, YouTube. Amongst all the keyboard-playing cats, finger-biting brothers and dancing dogs, there are loads of music videos to be seen: the most popular of which belong to a certain sweepy-haired Mr. Bieber. Create playlists and share your own music simply by uploading from your device. Simples.

Vimeo

Whilst YouTube might be the place to go to listen to your favourite tracks and watch the latest music videos, Vimeo is the home of music for creative study. The brand new Music Store houses over 45,000 songs and offers users the chance to download tracks for free under the Creative Commons licence - ideal for students needing to locate music to accompany video-based projects and presentations. The advanced search function allows you to search via tags, enabling you to discover tracks surrounding a particular theme or genre.

Head over to the Vimeo Music Store now to find out more.

Spotify

For those of you who aren’t on Spotify yet: get on it! Joining Spotify - the music streaming service - is FREE and you only have to put up with listening to radio-style ads after every few songs. There is a limitation to the number of times you can play any given track but that’s a small price to pay when you have this kind of access to great music. if you find the limitations of the free service just too irritating and have a bit of spare cash to burn, then you can always subscribe to the Unlimited or Premium options.

Download Spotify and sign up now.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark recently made it into our top ten of best free software for students so it must be good. Grooveshark is the world’s largest on-demand music service, offering over 15 millions songs and bringing users together in a similar way that Spotify does. The really great thing about Grooveshark however, is the fact that you won’t need to listen to any audio adds at all. What’s more you don’t even need to download software - just visit the website and start streaming right away!.

We7

We7 is another streaming service that allows users to stream 50 songs per month from the library of over 8 million tracks, without paying a penny. As soon as you search for a specific song or album title, a personalised music station full of songs matching this search will then be created. It's free, it's easy and it's completely personalised! Registering will give you unlimited access to stations, from genre-specific playlists to albums such 'Now 79' and the 'UK Top 40'.

Register with We7 now and get a two week free trial of their premium service.

Music websites

MySpace is great for discovering new music and most bands will post a number of tracks on their profile page - or even their own websites. Similarly, Soundcloud plays host to loads of new talent as the musical social network, enabling people to share and add their own comments to tracks. You'll often find that your favourite music sites offer streaming/downloading opportunities too so be sure to keep visiting sites such as Stereogum and FakeDIY to find out what you could be downloading to your iPod or listening to as you work, free of charge.

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