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We're somewhat spoilt for choice these days when it comes to music on the Internet. Piracy aside, it's now easier than ever to discover, enjoy and share completely legal music over the phone line.

There's a few well-known services to choose from these days, although Grooveshark is a favourite of mine. Grooveshark provides truly mobile cloud-based music streaming from any PC with compatible web browser.

If you've allied with Spotify, iTunes or Last.fm and need some help making the switch then read on!

Why Would I Do This?

Maybe you were once a Windows user who relied on Spotify for musical accompaniment during your darkest hours. Upon switching to Linux you found out the hard way that Spotify's Linux preview build is only compatible with premium accounts.

Only you don't want to pay for a premium account - enter Grooveshark. The main difference I have personally noticed between Grooveshark and Spotify (at least in my locale, the UK) is that whilst Spotify plays a "yo, we're Spotify - keeping the music free" advert every 5-10 songs, Grooveshark is oddly devoid of these.

What you do get instead is an advert bar running down the side of the screen (although if you install the wonderful AdBlock extension for Chrome and Firefox, even this takes a bow).

Other reasons might include practicality - Grooveshark only requires a compatible web browser, as opposed to a software download. If you're after your tunes then all you'll need to do is log in via the web interface and click My Music.

If you fancy giving Grooveshark a go but can't face losing your carefully planned playlists then Groovylists can probably help you out.

Converting Playlists

As mentioned, there are three services you can use with this service - Spotify, Last.fm and iTunes. It is of course possible that Grooveshark does not have every track in your playlist, and Groovylists may also make the odd mistake.

Note: There is an upper limit of 200 songs per playlist, so it's best to split up any huge collections you've got and process them in smaller chunks.

Spotify To Grooveshark

In order to convert your Spotify playlists you're going to need to log in using the Spotify client. This can be an issue if the whole reason you're switching is lack of access (e.g. a Linux user).

I did have some joy with Wine and Spotify on my Ubuntu 10.10 install, and although I was unable to stream any music I could still access my playlists.

Open up Spotify, log in and wait for everything to load. Once you can see your playlists on the left, highlight the one you'd like to convert. In the main Spotify panel, select all of that playlist's tracks (Ctrl+A is a quick shortcut), right click and choose Copy HTTP Link.

Open the Groovylists Spotify converter and paste your URLs into the box. Hit Groovyfy it! Wait for the process to run its course and enjoy. Once your playlist is ready Groovylists will give you a Grooveshark playlist. Click on it, make sure you're signed in and hit Add All and then Add To My Music to add your collections.

Last.fm To Grooveshark

If you've got a Last.fm username then enter it into the Groovylists Last.fm converter and hit Next. On the next page you'll be able to choose any of your playlists and hit the Groovyfy it! button.

Once complete your playlist will be available in Grooveshark format, and you can click Add All once logged in to add the songs to your collection.

iTunes To Grooveshark

For the iTunes conversion process you're going to need your .XML source playlist file. Upload it to the Groovylists iTunes converter and click Groovyfy it! - your playlist will then be available so you can easily add it to your collection with the Add All button.

Conclusion

There will be tracks that Groovylists won't find, tracks that Grooveshark simply does not have available yet. Hopefully as the service improves more and more music will be added to fill in the gaps.

You can repeat the import process as many times as you like without adding the same songs twice (once you've added a song it should have a green tick next to it). Groovylists is a handy little tool only really held back by Grooveshark's catalogue of music.

What do you think of Grooveshark? Converted any playlists? Are you a stung Spotify Linux user? Give us your opinions in the comments below.