Streaming site Grooveshark shuts under industry pressure

NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse

Grooveshark, an early leader in music streaming that enraged major labels by letting users upload copyrighted songs, abruptly shut down on April 30 after years of litigation.

Amid the rapid growth of streaming services such as Spotify that cooperate with the music industry, Grooveshark’s website went dark as the company avoided potential penalties in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Grooveshark, which claimed 30 million monthly users, said in a message on the site that it had reached a settlement with the three major record label conglomerates to cease operations immediately and hand over copyrighted song files.

“We started out nearly 10 years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music,” the message said. “But despite 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. Without reservation,” it said.

Grooveshark was founded in 2006 by three students at the University of Florida in one of the first sites that, in effect, allowed users to listen to music on-demand for free.

Grooveshark’s young, entrepreneurial spirit brought frequent media comparisons to Facebook with one founder who left the company, Colombian-born Andres Barreto, sometimes called the Latin Mark Zuckerberg.
Grooveshark allowed users to upload songs, which were often protected by copyright, to which others could listen.

The site eventually reached agreements with some independent labels but faced a string of lawsuits from the three major conglomerates, Universal, Sony and Warner Music.