Okay, that 250 MB collection of MP3s you started in 1997 has now blossomed into 50 GB. If you’re not quite eager to play the iPod/Zune/PMP game then you’d probably like an alternative way to, perhaps, listen to the music collection you have at home on your computer at work or on your laptop while travelling. Fortunately, you have a few very easy options before you. You can take advantage of online services that either allow you to upload your entire collection and listen to it online or, alternatively, use a service that provides you with a quick and easy download that frees you from having to upload anything and, instead, just streams what you already have and enables playback through a Web site.

For the former, you can check out MP3Tunes, Musana or TunesBag. (And I’m sure there’s more out there.) These services allow you to upload tracks (MP3s and WMAs, typically) from your existing collection without having to worry about whether or not your home PC is connected to the Internet.

MP3Tunes currently grants you 2 GB of storage on free accounts. Upgrades are available and are pretty cheap. The next available plan offers you about 50 GB of space for $4.95/mo or $39.95/yr. One additional benefit of signing up with a premium plan is the ability you’ll receive to listen to your tracks via a selection of Locker-enabled devices (including mobile phones) which means that you don’t even need a computer to listen to the tracks you’ve collected at home. Once you have your plan, simply grab the company’s LockerSync software to upload your tracks.

Next up is musana. In my rather humble opinion, musana is the weakest of the bunch… at least for now. The site currently does not offer an uploader (not that we could find, anyway) available for use which means you’re going to have to use your browser’s file select option to upload your tracks. Once you have uploaded some tracks, the player’s interface is “neat-looking” but not as intuitive as it should be. (Not bad, mind you, just not great.)

Granted, the site is still in “private beta” so things might improve. Although, the last post to the company’s official blog was back in February ‘08. That said, I wanted to include the site as an option for music lovers on-the-go but don’t be surprised if musana ends up in the deadpool.

Finally, in the “upload-&-listen” cateogry, we have tunesBag. While tunesBag states that they currently allow for unlimited uploading via the tunesBag uploader application, you’ll need to contact them directly if you wish you upload more than 5-7 GB of music.

Your Best Bet Overall, Though…

If you’ve got a broadband connection at home, your PC is always on and you really want to minimize the amount of effort required to get your collection accessible from any computer you might be at, you may want to take a look at the following two free, albeit similar, services.

First up is JukeFly. With JukeFly, you sign up for an account, download the “server” application, point it to your music collection and then, well, nothing. Your music collection is instantly accessible from wherever you can hit jukefly.com in a desktop Web browser. The interface (shown below) is a little cartoonish (it’s entirely Flash-based) but it allows you to do everything you might normally do from iTunes or Windows Media Player: create new playlists, shuffle, search, rate songs, etc.

There’s even some social networking functionality built-in. You can share your collection with others, comment on songs or view other users’ comments on the same song and/or artist, find lyrics (if available,) and even connect to your last.fm account. It’s a pain-free way to access your favorite tunes on the road.

Our favorite pick…

The second and final option we’ll be covering here is Orb. Orb provides you with the same option as JukeFly (being able to access your music collection on the road without having to upload your entire catalog) but takes it a step further; thus making it our favorite choice overall.

In addition to being able to access your tunes (in a brilliant, iTunes-esque Web interface, by the way,) Orb also provides you with the option to browse your home videos, pictures and documents from a remote machine.