by SHANE SINNOTT

Like other desperate souls, I have an office job. For you hipsters out there that might be unfamiliar, this is a situation where I go to a place every weekday for seven or eight hours and perform tasks on a computer for which I get paid. So I often find myself sick of what’s on my iPod and wanting to hear something new. A service I’ve come across recently is Sideload (sideload.com), which is a sort of plug-on for MP3 locker (mp3tunes.com). Go to the second site and you can sign up for a free account with 2GB of space (roughly 400 songs). Then you can upload songs to your “locker,” either from your own collection or from the web, and listen to them from any other computer with an Internet connection. The web links feature is sweet—you just paste in the link of whatever you’ve found and it’ll go to your locker, so you can “keep” the stuff you find online for later use. Sideload, meanwhile, is a search site that makes finding stuff for your locker way easier. The search engine trolls music blogs and the like for MP3s, and by pressing a button, you can add anything you find to your MP3 locker. Go to mp3tunes.com to sign up, and if you find it useful enough, there’s a paid “premium” subscription that costs $40 per year. It allows for a 50GB music collection, and to move stuff to your iPod or phone.

Another option is Deezer (deezer.com), which bills itself as “free on-demand music.” The site has deals with some of the majors and offers a large catalogue of streamable music. What makes it different from Last.fm and Pandora is that you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of listening to an online “station” or mix that some other jackass has put together. You just type in what you want to hear and can play it immediately. Unlike the MP3 locker, you can’t upload any of your files. If you do make an account, though, the space for saving MP3s you find is unlimited.