by Kyle Mammarella
Facing lawsuits from several major record companies, Grooveshark has responded by expanding its offerings.
The popular streaming music service, which claims 30 million active users (more than twice as many as Spotify), unveiled a web application that brings the music platform to any mobile device with an HTML5-supported browser. The new mobile website, which essentially acts as an app within the browser, puts its service back on the iPhone and other smartphone devices. The web-based version of Grooveshark already used HTML5, but it streamed music in Flash, which required an app in order to play on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market pulled the app following complaints of copyright infringement from major record companies (though Google allows third-party apps like TinyShark).
On Friday, Grooveshark Tweeted that, “[t]he dev team may or not be forging some awesomeness right now that will work on iOS devices without a jailbreak. Stay tuned.” On their blog they posted that they had developed the app as part of an effort, “to span over this confounded series of tubes and reach as many mobile music listeners as we can.”
The new web application circumvents Apple and Google’s restrictions. It now works with devices running Apple’s iOS operating system, Android 2.3 and above, as well as the HP TouchPad and the BlackBerry PlayBook. Users can search for music, select specific stations and browse popular songs.
Adding an element of mystery to the announcement, Grooveshark asked beta testers to access the HTML5 site on a device not listed on the website and report their findings for a “bonus surprise.”
However, Grooveshark now finds itself in the position of being sued by all of the major record labels. EMI announced their lawsuit against the service last week, claiming that they failed to pay royalties after entering into a licensing agreement three years ago with the label and that Grooveshark now owes $150,000 in back-payment. Grooveshark is claiming this is simply a minor contract dispute.
In November, Grooveshark and their parent, Escape Media Group, were sued by Universal Music Group, who alleged that they uploaded tracks illegally, effectively nullifying any protections afforded by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Last month, Warner Music Group and Sony Music joined Universal’s claim. They are asking for statutory damages under copyright law, which provides for between $750 and $150,000 per infringement. Grooveshark denied the allegations.
The Universal suit was promoted when an anonymous commenter on a Digital Music News article claimed that the service uploaded and streamed songs without obtaining the proper licenses. Since then, Grooveshark has subpoenaed Digital Music News to disclose the identity of the anonymous whistleblower. Thus far, Digital Music News has refused to comply, referencing legal protections and precedents for journalists and their sources.
Earlier today, it was reported the website shut down its operations in Germany after it faced rising charges from GEMA – the country’s representative of music publishers. According to The Local, the website was blocked to German users after increased demand for fees from GEMA left Grooveshark with high operating costs.
In the meantime, Grooveshark continues to take on all four major labels, as well as Apple and Google, proving they may be the most renegade of the music services out there.
Kyle Mammarella is a New York based artist manager and music enthusiast.
