Grooveshark, one of the earliest online music streaming service, is going to shut down today. According to the statement, it will not be coming back in another avatar.
The reason for shutting down the site mainly include copyright infringement issues with artists, publishers and music labels who were owners of the rights of a lot of music available for streaming on Grooveshark for free.
Grooveshark has tended an unconditional apology to rights holders, “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 its settlement with record labels, Grooveshark will wipe clean all the data on its servers and hand over the ownership of the website, mobile apps, intellectual property.
Grooveshark has also acknowledged that there are many services available online which let you stream music legally. “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,” it said in the statement.
In the early days on Grooveshark, music wasn’t licensed. Users would upload music online which would be available for streaming by the community. Grooveshark had earlier managed to settle with EMI and Sony in 2013. Read Grooveshark’s complete statement here.
