thread for grooveshark

not faux naif, but this is really not a thread yet? kinda surprised.
this is a thread where we talk about grooveshark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grooveshark

Legal issues

Operating in similar fashion to other online services like YouTube and Vimeo, Grooveshark requires users to indemnify Escape Media Group for any losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses arising from any breach of the Terms of Service or any allegation that user uploaded content violates intellectual property rights.[21] Users have complained about the unbalanced indemnification protections found in Grooveshark's EULA.[22] Despite these concerns, no user to date has faced legal action from Grooveshark or third-parties. Parties in the USA claiming copyright infringement may use mechanisms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to request that their content be removed. Repeat offenders, users who have uploaded unlicensed content more than two times, have had their Grooveshark accounts suspended.[23] Grooveshark makes a Label List available of all record labels with which they have royalty agreements, though in the past major record labels were noticeably absent.[24] This changed on May 8, 2009[25] EMI filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Grooveshark,[26] which was dropped on October 13, 2009 and replaced with a licensing deal.[27]
Universal Music Group filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Grooveshark on January 6, 2010.[28][29] This lawsuit is believed to have been the cause of Apple's pulling the Grooveshark application from iPhone in August 2010.[30]
In March 2010, Pink Floyd sued EMI over the amount of royalties the band should receive for digital sales of their music, and as to whether tracks from their concept albums can be sold as singles.[31] Pink Floyd won, and almost all of their tracks have been removed from Grooveshark.

^aside from the above, how is grooveshark allowed to exist here in the States when spotify isn't? not understanding the legal babble tbh.

I don't either! If lala was axed, why not this?
It just continues to exist. And I continue to use it, but...? How long can this last?

Anyone?

I like grooveshark in spite of its stupid name.

I love using it, and you can't be too made at the incompleteness of some entries given that it exists at all.

mad*

Ok, I'll ask this -- is there a better alternative to Spotify in the US? If so, I would like to know what it is.

Things I like about grooveshark:

* save stuff to library w/free account
* interface relatively easy to use
* cue up next songs, rearrange current songs in that little bar at the bottom
* did i mention that this is for the free account? does anyone have the paid account? the only thing i can see that it does is (1) remove ads and (2) allow lastfm scrobbling

Don't like:
* no app
* how long can this last?
* no one knows what I'm talking about when I ask if they use grooveshark

keiji haino/peter brotzmann - boys of summer (don henley cover) on grooveshark.com

no one wanted to talk about grooveshark in april 2010 either, i guess

I figure nobody knows it exists.

Answer to all your questions about it and the success of this thread.

For instance, right now I am listening to album after album by Richard Youngs, and yesterday I had never heard a single song by Richard Youngs. Today I have three of his albums in my library and can listen to them whenever I want as many times as I want so long as I have an internet connection. That rules.

I never signed up for any version of an account. I just use it as a visitor.

No -- four albums!

I really like having the account -- I'm pretty spacey, so if I listened to something I could just as soon forget that I listened to it, so it helps me keep track of stuff I heard/wanted to hear and may purchase in the future if I like it enough. Plus, it's free. Also I can share stuff with nerd friends...if any of them would actually use it.

Time magazine listed it in it's top 50 websites of 2010, so maybe it will catch on (although "catching on" will surely lead to it's demise)

Anyway, I love Grooveshark. Been using it for a while.

Anyway, I love Grooveshark. Been using it for a while.

― Darin, Friday, April 1, 2011 11:20 AM Bookmark

It was very helpful to me when a friend and I recently created a group and counted down our Top 100 songs on Facebook. About 90% of the time, we were able to link to something on YouTube, but now and again, we needed to link to Grooveshark. A couple of songs were so obscure that first I had to upload the song to Grooveshark myself--takes a few days for them to make it available. I'm mystified as to the logistics of it all--the legality, how it's supposed to generate revenue, etc. With me, that's true of half the stuff I use on the internet.

Has anyone here paid for an account? Is it a bad idea to post usernames itt?

there is an app, btw, but yr phone has to be jailbroken

grooveshark is great, especially in Canada where even streaming music services like pandora and last.fm don't work.

I'm actually a bit perplexed that this site has lasted as long as it has.

see, neither of those services allow you to save to a library
it's what makes grooveshark so wonderful imo
more like mobile itunes than frustrating radio

well i guess lastfm does
but not in the same way

the grooveshark app expires without a subscription or something. any way around that?
I do notice the downloaded songs are in the Grooveshark directory so you can still get at them, but
there doesn't seem to be any other apps that will play mp3s from arbitrary directories

I recently had Spoitfy for a while in the US
I noticed that Grooveshark had more albums that I was looking for
Spotify must kind of suck

They don't have all the Grifters though... was trying to access that at work the other day.

It was very helpful to me when a friend and I recently created a group and counted down our Top 100 songs on Facebook. About 90% of the time, we were able to link to something on YouTube, but now and again, we needed to link to Grooveshark. A couple of songs were so obscure that first I had to upload the song to Grooveshark myself--takes a few days for them to make it available. I'm mystified as to the logistics of it all--the legality, how it's supposed to generate revenue, etc. With me, that's true of half the stuff I use on the internet.
― clemenza, Friday, April 1, 2011 4:49 PM (5 hours ago)

divshare would have been a lot quicker.
for example, here is one of my spring sounding mixes: for chamber pop fans

Nice of you to mention Grifters, Evan. Still my favorite band ever. There's a torrent of practically all their material floating around somewhere

I'm been holding out on Crappin because I work at a record store and I'm always hoping a used copy comes through. One time the CD did but it was totally shredded..

Missed out on a bundle of the first four records on ebay too, bidding ended at under $50 or something.

Haha wait I'm not constipated, to be clear.

haha

xp - quicker maybe but the thing about grooveshark is that now those songs are available to other -- unknown! -- people. i uploaded the rangda record when i noticed that it wasn't on there. now, if you listen to false flag on grooveshark, you have me to thank. and you don't have to beg me or prove your worth to me with your outstanding ratio or even know me or that i exist -- you can just listen to it. that's nice!

i haven't listened to grifters in ages. maybe i should.

Maybe I should upload Milf (one of my top 5-6 favorite bands ever) to share with all of you, but I don't like signing up for stuff usually.

see, that's the spirit
you signed up for ilx, take it the extra inch

a streaming grifters song that I like
a streaming milf song that I like

Yes! Sell out!

What version is that?

I dunno

Ha, Ok

speaking of sunshine pop, it's spring and i couldn't find this on grooveshark, so i added it...for you! and you, and you, and you. and you over there.
"haunted places" and " i try to think of you when i can" are my personal favorites

The Groop

I also have no idea why, but "The Continental" refused to upload. Huh. It's pretty corny anyway, you don't need it.

The other day I saw Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and loved the music. On the Herzog thread it was recommended that I listen to Ernst Reijseger's other sdtk music, so I went to grooveshark and looked it up, added it to my music, and today (a day later) I am listening to it. (Requiem for a Dying Planet)

Legally! For free!

I <3 u grooveshark

I also <3 grooveshark! (and I think I have you repping for it in the Chicago thread to thank for that). It can be annoying when the tracks are in alphabetical order or some are randomly missing, but since it's essentially "legal" file-sharing. Lala's only one listen rule was pretty annoying too. Hopefully they never change their horrible name and not super appealing interface (though it's easy enough to use).

searching it is incredibly unreliable, you need to think of every permutation of the names involved. but i really really like it.

oh, and sequencing tracks if youre doing an album, yeesh.

glad my insistent rambling is useful to someone !!

did anyone listen to the groop?

You guys know you can sort by track number, title, etc right?

i knew that, yes

the problem is that people are understandably very unreliable about uploading track nos. also, they misspell shit, or format things strangely.

i've been using it for a year, it's def worth any hassles tho imo.

and i have the groop in my sights for playing a little later today, thks!

so perfect for spring

yeah, if there aren't track numbers, then they just play in alphabetical order (unless I'm missing something). Obviously not a huge problem--slightly more annoying is when album tracks are duplicated or put under that "more songs" tab. Still, Lala's demise really messed up my office life, so I'm happy grooveshark isn't perfect and might not get popular as said upthread.

The Groop is nice.

oh, theyre sorta like a smoothed down version of the free design? this is v. nice for a day like today.

_like_ the inclusion of steel on goin back

yeah -- they're like mamas and papas + free design with a little of the association thrown in? i dunno. pure golden sunshine.
"haunted places" has this funny bit where the guy singer gets really emotional, and you know he was really *feelin it* in that way that the guy who sang "cherish" was really feelin it.

i have the groop cd!

There's a handful of Yoko Ono solo records on here -- but no Double Fantasy?

Why is everyone going nuts over Spotify when there's Grooveshark?

Some weird discrepancies - like the one JC mentioned above - but otherwise, search, click, play all. No ads, except the occasional Victoria's Secret visual ad that may turn heads in the office.

I've put in for a spotify invite so I can see for myself, but in the meantime, I'll just listen to what I want in the order that I want on Grooveshark.

Because, afaik, Grooveshark isn't at all supported by labels and/or artists, all the music is uploaded by users and is pretty much open to being removed at any time the copyright holder decides they don't want it up there.

in theory that's the big difference yes^^ but in my experience not so much a real difference since music is being removed from spotify all the time as well

i imagine that in terms of sheer #s spotify has more stuff than grooveshark.

also grooveshark's metadata and cataloging sucked; i remember albums getting split apart by a labeling issue and stuff like that /librarian

Yeah, the metadata is the biggest problem. I always have to pull up Wikipedia/Amazon tracklistings to assemble albums myself from whatever scattered tracks exist in the database. The fact that it's Web-based is nice, though.

metadata blowz

i'll admit that i haven't used grooveshark in a while...

Ok, I am back to using grooveshark because spotify just doesn't have a lot of things I would like to hear. Grooveshark may not be perfect, and I wish it scrobbled to lastfm for free like spotify, but honestly I don't really care about that so long as there are things I actually want to hear instead of Kelly Clarkson ads interrupting my transcendental jams.

Have we had this yet? Couldn't see any likely threads on new answers:

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/new-lawsuit-means-all-major-labels-are-suing-grooveshark/

dag

Since I had to change my gender on spotify in order to avoid loud annoying makeup ads in between my transcendental jams, I have gone back to my old friend grooveshark.

Does anyone know what's up with their legal situation? I have no idea if digitalmusicnews dot com is a legitimate site or not, here is some unfortunate evidence? Maybe?

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120117grooveshark

Grooveshark attorneys are now exerting heavy legal pressure on Digital Music News, with the goal of outing a very problematic whistleblower. ... The aggressive and broad-reaching subpoena is designed to force the disclosure of the identity of the anonymous whistleblower, and gain access to any and all correspondence between Digital Music News, Grooveshark employees and plaintiff Universal Music Group.

Don't know, but Grooveshark doesn't come out of this article looking at all well:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/12/grooveshark-music-site

eek, nagl

In the meantime, some eyebrow-raising emails have come to light. Grooveshark investor Sina Simantob, who is CEO of Highland Wealth Services and executive chairman of Escape Media, which operates Grooveshark, wrote: "We bet the company on the fact that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission."

Oh wow, I'd be surprised if grooveshart is around in another year.

Hahahah @ "grooveshart", whoops.

Hm. I want to root for these guys 'cause they're a Gainesville business, but... yuck.

definitely all kinds of stuff up on grooveshark that's not on spotify, almost anytime i look for something on spotify that's not there, i find it right away on grooveshark

I stopped looking anywhere near this site because it's run by dicks and I'm not going to encourage their assery

oddly enough, I have no qualms about using private torrent sites. no profit made, there

i am one of the disgusting savages who still uses grooveshark from time to time

i savagely use grooveshark, it's been helpful w/metal and old blues and folk especially.

i use gs to play random music after our meetings.

mh - what's wrong with the guys that run it? are the *actual* sharks?!

I know the entire music business is shady, but basically it's run by jerks who heavily monetize their site through ads yet have no real business plan for paying artists, I believe. Additionally, some artists who specifically requested that their music be removed found it added back later.

The site administrators basically said "hey, we remove when people ask, but we can't guarantee that someone else won't upload it later." I can't remember if it was through legal action or someone spilling the beans, but it was basically implied the people who keep uploading music that was supposed to be removed was the site founders.

ah jeez i didn't even read anything upthread when i posted. sounds shady, which would explain why they have all this stuff up that spotify doesn't.

it's def my second choice either way, spotify is just leagues better.

I can't remember if it was through legal action or someone spilling the beans, but it was basically implied the people who keep uploading music that was supposed to be removed was the site founders.

yes I read the same thing. Robert Fripp has documented it, somewhere.

Grooveshark faces ban in UK, top executive murdered: http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/11/grooveshark-faces-ban-in-uk-top-executive-murdered/

i just happened to google the site since i was wondering why so much stuff is available here but not on spotify (particularly drag city) but now i'm guessing is that they're just uploading shit and dgaf?

i dunno how it is now but a few years back you could upload stuff without even having an account. some things i uploaded back then are still there (given away by my dodgy labelling) so it's a bit of a surprise they managed to keep going for this long.

Done.

http://grooveshark.com/

I had actually spent a lot of time putting together a couple of project-related playlists, now relegated to digital dustbin of history.

try this
http://groovebackup.com/

or this
http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/34goss/meta_grooveshark_shut_down_forever_today/cqupd1g

http://giraffesocialmedia.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/spotify-vs-grooveshark.jpg

The groovebackup link isn't working for me. I had also put together a bunch of playlists that I'd used for teaching for years.

I loved it, I'll miss it, I'm completely surprised this didn't happen three or four years ago.

It was kinda like having a girlfriend with a terminal disease.

"You think we can listen to Countdown to Ecstasy, just one more time?"

"Sure thing. Let's make every moment count here."

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2015/05/28/im-a-former-grooveshark-employee-and-heres-what-i-need-to-tell-the-industry

that's interesting but I think that fellow should have run his rant through a spell check.

Shock news here

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150720/ARTICLES/150729990?p=1&tc=pg

The Startup podcast covers the rise and implosion of Grooveshark.
https://gimletmedia.com/episode/dear-music-fans-season-3-episode-4/

Ooh. I love Reply All, but I've never listened to Startup. Seems like a good episode to check out.