After a lengthy legal battle, the popular free streaming service Grooveshark was forced to close their doors yesterday. Founded in 2007 and promising free streaming for fans to discover any music they wanted, it’s no surprise that they were obligated to shut down their operation.
A federal court ruled that Grooveshark did not properly secure licenses for the music they were sharing, a major problem in today’s music streaming economy. The company is forced to relinquish their website, mobile apps, and any other property, otherwise they could be forced to pay a fine of $75 million to the major music publishing groups.
The message that Grooveshark posted can be read below. RIP Grooveshark!
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 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.
As 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.
At the time of our launch, few music services provided the experience we wanted to offer — and think you deserve. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. There are now hundreds of fan friendly, affordable services available for you to choose from, including Spotify, Deezer, Google Play, Beats Music, Rhapsody and Rdio, among many others.
If you love music and respect the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible, use a licensed service that compensates artists and other rights holders. You can find out more about the many great services available where you live here:
It has been a privilege getting to know so many of you and enjoying great music together. Thank you for being such passionate fans.
Yours in music,
Your friends at Grooveshark
April 30, 2015