You heard right. After a long legal battle with several record companies (which came as no surprise), the popular music streaming service, Grooveshark, will be available in the Google Play store again after 16 months of silence. Even though Grooveshark was still available on laptops, the more popular means of using Grooveshark was through mobile means, so the reintroduction into Google Play should mean a new-found popularity for the service.
However, just because the service is back and available for use, there is no guarantee that the placement is going to stick. Grooveshark and Google may have worked out some blunders, but the record companies are still pretty heated about the situation, and are suing Grooveshark. It should be of no surprise just what the problem is that the record companies – which include three of the “Big Four” – have with Grooveshark. The three include Universal Music Group Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Bros.
Though users who pay no fee to use the basic form of Grooveshark have to go through some advertisements, as well as on-screen ads that never go away, that isn’t good enough. The record companies say that the streaming service, which is owned and run by Escape Media Group of Gainsville, Florida does not pay and secure the proper licenses to legitimately distribute the music that is on the site.
Though Google never actually stated any reasons for why they pulled the app from their store last year, there is little doubt that it had to do with the growing pressure from record companies. As Digital Music News has stated, Google is making a pretty bold move by letting it all happen again, and will certainly get a lot of heat from the record companies.
If you use Grooveshark, you’ll know that there is a plentiful selection to choose from. Often you’ll see duplicates of the same song or album, which is an all too familiar site of torrent sites.
Since this all just started on Tuesday of this week, more will develop (or fall apart) on the reactions and relationships between the companies involved in the manner.
Mike Lamardo is a contributor for IMM in music industry and entertainment news. He also makes contributions towards ATT Uverse and more.
photo: defaulterror
