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Grooveshark Shuts Down

grooveshark.com

121–130 of 283 posts

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, but when it comes to libraries there's a public-good element to their activities, as they provide access to those materials for those who otherwise may not be able to afford them. How is that any different from free services like Grooveshark, The Pirate Bay, Napster, etc.?

I really need to explain to you that the poor don't generally have computers? Or internet access? :)

But.. they have access to libraries with computers... More seriously, most of the world doesn't have easy access to libraries like US or some other developed countries while they do have access to decent internet.

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#122

This makes me immensely sad as a long time user of Grooveshark. Such contrast in fortunes when you compare YouTube [0] and Grooveshark. Grooveshark, for most part, was an amazing service. They were at the forefront of UI design, brilliant at surfacing new and related content (music), excellent at quality of service (variable bit-rate buffering). You would think that with a good exit to a company like Yahoo or Amazon,…

They had to hand over all their IP as part of the settlement so I doubt the product will be open sourced.

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#124
I was listening to music (on Grooveshark touch) while driving down the highway. The page refreshed and this came up, it was a very weird feeling.

This was the best music product I've ever used, and it was buggy as fuck sometimes. I used it so much I learned weird ways to get around the menu rendering issues on the html5/touch version of grooveshark. Even with its bugs it was my main music platform.

Thank you for your hard work. It was one of my favorite webapps.

Long live Grooveshark~

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#125

As someone who works full time in the music business, I shed no tears for Grooveshark. The only thing I don't like about this situation is that there appears to be no settlement for the thousands (tens, hundreds?) of indie artists, labels, writers and publishers whose music was on the site. 10% revenue loss for an indie label or publisher has a far greater impact on their viability than 10% loss to .

You make music because it's fun. If you're doing it for the money you're doing it wrong. If I could make even a single dime on my music it would be a privilege but I'm happy as it is.

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#127

"As a part of a settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies' copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights." Ouch. Sounds harsh. Wonder if they had to turn over the user data as well...

I wonder if they had to make such an apologetic statement as well.

If they've already lost control of the site it's unlikely they themselves were making this statement. Otherwise it is possible that it's an apology delineated by the settlement and likely written by lawyers.

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#128
This is really sad news. I used to look at the Grooveshark interfaces with awe. You guys were always on top of your usability and design, right down to the 400 error pages.

I really love the goal you guys had when you started on this journey, and I admire that you were forging a new path. Before all of these music services came out, you were the only reliable option for listening to music the way I wanted to.

Josh, thank you for taking time to share your story with me when I was in college writing Startups Open Sourced. I admire your enthusiasm and persistence, and you seem like an awesome person to work with in any capacity.

I wish everyone at Grooveshark the best.

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#129
post #14

Anyone know what patents they held? I wonder if music industry will leverage them to take down other sites who are acting within the law via patent suits.

I don't know enough about how the patent system works. Wikipedia says Grooveshark is a service of Escape Media Group Inc. A few results show up in Google's patent search for Escape Media Group Inc.

Edit to add link: https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=inassign...

Re: Grooveshark Shuts Down

#130

The site is just an image with small text, so I've transcribed it here; --- Dear music fans, Today we are shutting down Grooveshark. We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite the best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize. With…

As part of the settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights. Yeah Grooveshark was really getting in the way of me paying for that album ($10) and song ($1.something) I paid for in the…

I definitely think you're in the minority.

I don't remember the last time I bought an album or song, but I use streaming music services all the time. Same goes for anyone I know. Admittedly anecdotal but then again so is your assertion.

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