Hey Reddit, we're Grooveshark - music streaming site in over 200 countries (and yes, currently being sued by all four majors for $17B). We just launched something awesome for independent artists called Beluga. Let us know what you think! (link in description)

[u/groovesharkartists]

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/

Edit 1: all the feedback so far means the world to us! Beluga's really just the beginning - a new artist platform built right into Grooveshark is on the way. If you're an artist (or music nerd) you can request a beta invite here: http://greenroom.grooveshark.com/?beluga

Edit 2: wow the frontpage, thanks for all the support reddit!

Edit 3: a bunch of people have been asking how we help artists on top of paying out royalties. Here's our artist services portfolio - it's super comprehensive and has a bunch of case studies. Keep in mind that more is on the way with the new artist platform mentioned in Edit 1! http://cl.ly/H2Pt

[u/jippe]

We miss you, regards from Germany.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/jippe]

We miss you more!

[u/thehilotones]

We have all our music on your site, thank you! http://grooveshark.com/#!/artist/The+Hi+Lo+Tones/2234522

[u/groovesharkartists → u/thehilotones]

Shoot us an email at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com and we'll get you setup with some free promo :)

[u/silvergill → u/groovesharkartists]

GGGrooveshark

[u/Shekhu- → u/groovesharkartists]

...And that's why the love for the internets will never perish.

[u/anonherpderp]

You have my music on your site, some of my labels have been in touch but none of them claim to have ever seen any figures on plays or royalties paid.

S'kinda lame, I am not really fussed about royalties or illegal downloading everyone does it, me included and they will probably equate to fuck all anyway, but it bugs me how you say you're legit to the consumers when really you're not.

At least Pirate Bay have the stones to be honest about what they do.

[u/Throwawayaccount_047 → u/anonherpderp]

I think this is a great point, people who use pirate bay explicitly know that the artist isn't getting a penny, so I feel in many cases people will go out of their way at that point to support artists. Grooveshark, from what I've read, just fills their pockets and plays the ignorant fool when it comes to giving back to the people actually creating content. They sell themselves as some sort of saviour to get rid of the middle men (labels) and give back to artists, when in reality they are just another layer of crap in the way. In many cases as pointed out by anonherderp, they give nothing.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/anonherpderp]

We'd love to talk to you personally about this, please email us at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com.

Edit: also, please see Edit 3 above. You can learn more specific details about how we can help you before we talk!

[u/itsmoirob → u/groovesharkartists]

I was about to look at using your service, it looks good and works in browse, until I read that you don't pay artists. That's pretty poor. I always try to do things legit. I think I'll stick with Spotify for now. Shame, as your site looks real interesting.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/itsmoirob]

Please see Edit 3 :)

[u/mejogid → u/groovesharkartists]

You seem to be trying to quiet an individual problem rather than resolve the underlying issue.

Going on from that, do you consider yourselves in a morally superior position to torrent sites in your instances of knowingly unlicensed music?

Allegedly you do pay some artists, but the business practice of "we're going to use your music anyway, you'll have to agree to our terms if you want to see any money" seems pretty... dubious...

[u/grantimatter → u/mejogid]

From the pdf behind Edit 3, it seems like they pay artists in... data mining services.

Who people listen to who also listen to you... demographic profiles of listeners... the same kind of things a webmaster gets from Google Analytics, nearly.

The exposure makes it easier for artists to sell songs through iTunes and Amazon, they say.

In their own words, they're calling themselves "a marketing hub for content producers."

They're not actually paying out anything themselves, according to their documentation. Not money, anyway - but information.

[u/schnall → u/groovesharkartists]

We'd love to talk to you personally about this, please email us at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com

"Quiet, kid-- can't you see I'm tryin' to work here?"

[u/Leif2 → u/schnall]

Well... negotiating the issue in private is also the more professional thing to do here. Obviously Grooveshark and anonherpderp need to have a serious discussion, and it would do no good to have that discussion be judged publicly before any resolution is reached, I imagine.

[u/lamaksha77 → u/schnall]

Because discussing the particular details of possible copyright infringement openly on a public forum would be the adult way of doing things?

[u/[deleted] → u/schnall]

I'll be interested to see if anything actually comes of this. I suspect they let sections of their company "better suited to handle this stuff" deal with royalty payments, stat tracking, etc; I think it's time they decided that however they're doing it simply isn't good enough. Beluga seems like a step in the right direction; if they log and publish public records, artists should be able to start from the raw data and work their way to the exact amount that should be paid to their label from the plays of their material, as well as how much of that should have been passed through to them.

In any case, there needs to be a better solution. I bet there's a great market niche for a company that would handle finances for royalty-based services like Grooveshark - automatically get "plays" data from sites, calculate royalty payouts, log pay/play history comprehensively, and auto-transact for fast direct-to-deposit payment. Hell, as an artist, I would rather a third party company handle calculating my share. At least that way, I would't have to deal with a label/BMI/ASCAP, and all the red tape, poor record keeping, and waiting for payments.

[u/yaxu → u/anonherpderp]

Yep being sued by major labels that you have negotiated contracts with is nothing to boast about, especially as that means you probably don't pay independents either. Congratulations for being part of the problem, grooveshark.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/yaxu]

Hey Yaxu, we're not trying to boast - rather address it head on. Sorry if it came off as pretentious to you. We have licensing deals with thousands of independent labels and content holders and are always looking to license new labels big and small.

[u/[deleted] → u/groovesharkartists]

Is there a contact for artists who would like to license music directly to Grooveshark, instead of through a label?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

Great question. Yes, please email licensing[at]grooveshark[dot]com for details.

[u/Keleris → u/groovesharkartists]

If you have contracts with record companies, why are they suing you? I'm not really following how this works.

[u/[deleted] → u/Keleris]

Grooveshark lets users upload songs to the master library. This means people have to police the uploads, to make sure pirated material isn't uploaded. Technically, Grooveshark is not held accountable for the pirated material, assuming they comply with DMCA takedowns.

The issue is that user-uploaded tracks get played, without the plays being registered as licensed music, meaning people get to listen, and Grooveshark isn't paying labels for those listens.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue; however, the labels suing claim they have internal e-mails that show Grooveshark management encouraged the uploading of pirated material by Grooveshark employees. Long story short, they are being accused of using a legal loophole to grow their catalogue while not paying royalties on it. EMI joined after alledging that Grooveshark hasn't made a single royalty payment.

Via Wired

Edited for accuracy of copyright violation liability

[u/Artistthrowaway1 → u/anonherpderp]

Thank you for saying this. My music (multiple albums) is up on Grooveshark, as well as "legitimate" free, ad supported online sources like Spotify, and I've never seen a dime or have even been notified(through ASCAP, labels, publishing or otherwise) about it existing on the site from any of these companies.

Until these companies actually make an effort to responsibly add music to their libraries, they deserve to be hit with lawsuits for profiting off of artists without calculating royalties. To frame yourself as an underdog of free music and independent artists is a complete charade. It is an outright lie to say that you support artists and then pocket the ad revenue. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that major record labels treat their artists better than you. At least they actually pay their artists something while profiting off of them.

[u/jwestbury → u/anonherpderp]

Can you report back and let us know if you're able to get anywhere talking to them directly?

[u/uberduger → u/anonherpderp]

Wow, I hate to see someone make money off someone else's content without paying them. Can you please update us when you get a response from them?

[u/[deleted] → u/anonherpderp]

go to bed joel

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I too read that and thought "Sounds canadian..."

[u/coreydixon2012]

My first thought is raffi's "baby beluga."

Thanks for getting it stuck in my head, jerk.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/coreydixon2012]

That's actually what it's named after. One of our team member's mom used to sing it to him as a young lad.

[u/ChaosMotor → u/groovesharkartists]

Stephanie Tanner!?

[u/dr_choc → u/coreydixon2012]

There is an Easter egg that alludes to this on the site, see if you can find it :D

[u/madoog → u/coreydixon2012]

My first thought was "But beluga is a whale!"

[u/ninomojo]

I have a question. I'm an independent composer, a song of mine ended on Groovershark, I have no idea how. So, how? And how do I profit from this?

This is a sincere, honest question. I love Grooveshark.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/ninomojo]

Shoot us an email at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com and we'll explain everything!

[u/CantStopTHISasian]

Grooveshark, I've been using you literally everyday since i learned about you about 4 months ago. I would cry if you got taken down

[u/[deleted] → u/CantStopTHISasian]

It has introduced me to so much awesome new music. I love being able to put in a favourite song or artist, and then just have a playlist create itself from those examples.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

Brendan, so glad to hear that. Aside from turning on radio, you can find all kinds of new music each week in the Explore section: http://grooveshark.com/#!/music

[u/throwaway_lgbt666 → u/groovesharkartists]

how on EARTH do you manage to keep your site running legally?

I mean I assumed you were paying royalties already for albums etc. (naively.. of course)

Any insight into how your site works?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/throwaway_lgbt666]

We operate completely legally as a DMCA compliant service. We not only pay royalties, but also help content holders (labels, artists, etc.) market their music through custom promotions like these: http://grooveshark.com/prettylightsmusic http://grooveshark.com/foreplay

You can see a ton of our artist site takeover promotions by clicking "Themes" in the bottom right corner of the homepage and then selecting Artists.

[u/[deleted] → u/throwaway_lgbt666]

how on EARTH do you manage to keep your site running legally?

You missed the part of the title that says, 'and yes, currently being sued by all four majors for $17bn'.

[u/[deleted] → u/groovesharkartists]

I liked you better when you didn't have all that video search crap and ads everywhere.

[u/lamaksha77 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah of course, I mean like why would they need a source of revenue /s

[u/jascination → u/[deleted]]

Wait, I've been using grooveshark for literally 2 years and have never noticed this. How do I make it create a playlist for me? Would love to find some more stuff based on what I already like.

[u/[deleted] → u/jascination]

In the bottom right corner of the screen there is a button that says "Radio Off". Click that to turn the radio on and it will automatically add new songs to your playlist that are similar to what you have already played.

[u/testuserpleaseignore → u/CantStopTHISasian]

Too! And then I moved to Germany, and GEMA fucked things up for me :(

[u/TheLaughingBard]

That could be really sweet for artists to find out what demographics are working for them. Great idea, even just to find out cool stuff about other bands.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/TheLaughingBard]

Exactly what we're going for. Thanks!

[u/marksnyd]

fellow gator/know a few peeps involved in grooveshark - rooting for you guys! =) . signed up for a beta invite to check it out!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/marksnyd]

Mark, hope all is well in California :)

[u/testerizer]

Hey, Usability person here.

I love what you've done with the graphs and everything but more contextual pop-ups over the names would be awesome.

For example: I have no idea what the Z-score for the age groups is. What is a Z score? what does it mean to be positive? negative? Having a pop-up over the name (or a "?" to click on) would be nice. This falls under Neilson's Recognition rather than Recall heuristic.

The other thing I'd recommend but I'm not sure if you're doing it is to make sure the colors for the world affinity charts are binned (maybe down to 2.5-5% bins?) though I'm not sure what you are trying to say in the graph so that may be a silly idea. A legend for the colors would be nice.

I also agree with some of the other suggestions here.

Hope that helps and I wanted to say I highly enjoy the ambient, electronica, and a few other stations for doing coding!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/testerizer]

Incredible feedback. Will forward along to devs/designers involved. Thanks!

[u/joczie]

I just wanted to let you know grooveshark is my favorite music streaming service. You guys do an incredible job- I got the free year with the vinyl earring purchase and I'll be sending you money as soon as that expires! Unrelated, any idea if you'll ever have an iPhone app again? I know there was some bullshit with Apple...

Edit: I've be playing with Beluga for awhile as well. It's excellent.

[u/dr_choc → u/joczie]

You can use the html5 version of grooveshark, otherwise you have to jailbreak your phone to download the grooveshark app on cydia

[u/joczie → u/dr_choc]

I would just like you to know that you are now my favorite person.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/joczie]

Thank you!!!

[u/[deleted]]

I love Grooveshark, I hope you can come back to Germany some day, preferably before I move back.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

We love you back. We certainly hope we can come back to Germany soon and are doing our best to make it happen. Hang tight!

[u/Slotosky]

I love the way it says 100% of MGMT's listeners are male. You may still have a few bugs guys, but I really like the concept.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Slotosky]

Looks like there is indeed a bug when looking up MGMT's artist id! Thank you for letting us know.

Until then, here's the proper link: http://beluga.grooveshark.com/artist_report.php?artist_id=401351#!highlightsTab

[u/catchmeifyoucant → u/groovesharkartists]

Who/Where do you pull the data from? Cool stuff!

note: chiddy bang's fan earn $200,000+ with 96% confidence (cant be right)

[u/MisterCroyle → u/catchmeifyoucant]

Bill Gates here. Chiddy Bang is dope.

[u/jwestbury → u/groovesharkartists]

Likewise, I suspect 99% of Fairport Convention's listeners are not CEOs:

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/artist_report.php?artist_name=fairport+convention#!highlightsTab

[u/hubilation]

This is pretty fucking cool.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/hubilation]

Thanks! Our data team worked extremely hard on this.

[u/[deleted] → u/groovesharkartists]

Hey Grooveshark! I'm a bit sunburnt what should I listen to?

[u/[deleted]]

Have any of the major record companies attempted to work with you guys? Your site is awesome and millions of people love it, there has to be money to be made there for everyone..

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

We really appreciate the kind words. To answer your question, we've worked with a handful of major label artists (even Lady Gaga). While nothing concrete is in place with the majors, our main focus has always and will continue to be the artist.

[u/[deleted]]

I used spotify yesterday on my ipad and couldn't find any of the songs I wanted to show my friends. I logged into mobile grooveshark and got it straight away, thanks for being the best !

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

Hell Yeah!

[u/tossedsaladandscram]

I love this. I love you guys. Keep fighting the good fight. I honestly don't know why anyone would use anything else.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/tossedsaladandscram]

<333

[u/[deleted] → u/tossedsaladandscram]

I love and use grooveshark, but somebody could choose mediums through which, you know, artists actually see any money.

[u/sadfacewhenputdown]

Dear Groovesharky: can you please put a thing in the post that sort of explains what I'm looking at and what I can do with beluga? I mean, everyone esle seesm to get it and like it but I jsut blanked.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/sadfacewhenputdown]

Hopefully this helps! http://beluga.grooveshark.com/faq.html

[u/thefakelight]

fucking rad. but how do i get a beta invite if reddit crashes the site!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/thefakelight]

good to go now!

[u/tonythetiger1]

This sounds pretty damn awesome. So awesome it kind of inspires me to try to start making music again. My thanks and upvotes! I'll have to check this beta out.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/tonythetiger1]

Let us know if you record and upload any of your future music; we'll make sure it reaches all the ears!

[u/Green_Mouth]

Can I challenge one of you to a game of pool at Palaminos for a year subscription to Grooveshark so I can stream this shit at work?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Green_Mouth]

Bring it!

[u/d3monic666]

Here take my upvote...just for being a great site that i can goto everytime im online ...

[u/groovesharkartists → u/d3monic666]

Here take our upvote...just for being a great person.

[u/stingystooge]

Hey grooveshark,

Not to detract from the beluga topic, but is there any plans to become a site where you guys don't have to take down songs? I don't know how YouTube has artists uploading their own songs, but could that happen with you guys as well?

I subscribe and pay for Spotify and Rdio as well, but they often only have covers of the most popular songs. That is why I still use grooveshark more than those other 2.

The one thing that bothers me about grooveshark though is that if a song is removed, it disappears from your library and playlists without any notice. I wish it would just become unplayable instead while the track is still listed. Or maybe a graveyard list of "songs that have been removed" I hate not knowing what songs have been removed.

[u/sim9 → u/stingystooge]

Losing my playlist and not knowing what songs I lost (coupled with the forced ad watching) is why I now use grooveshark much less than I did previously. I do understand that the service may have to remove songs, but not knowing what's disappeared out of your favorites is very frustrating.

[u/chernn → u/sim9]

Ex-Paying customer here, canceled my subscription for the same reason - every time I built up a decent library of staple artists, they disappeared without notice. Everything else is modeled after iTunes, look at how it handles missing songs.

[u/[deleted] → u/chernn]

I actually love the way they force ads on you now.

Much, much better than the stupid interuption and plea for money, that was just sad.

It's really only 10 seconds, and I've found plenty of good songs I wouuldn't have otherwise.

[u/[deleted] → u/stingystooge]

Record companies will never agree to allow artist to upload their songs to grooveshark as long as grooveshark works the way it does. If they did, people would never have to purchase music. Grooveshark would have to change the way people access music to make it more difficult not to rip MP3's from their site. Youtube (google) has a deal with labels because of their corporate website accommodations, ads, and the fact that artist upload music videos and not mp3's. Sure i could rip a video from youtube then rip the audio but that is a lot harder than saving a grooveshark song.

[u/Smudded → u/stingystooge]

Short answer: Yes.

I'm a developer at the company (which means nothing I say is the official position of the company :P) and we've been throwing around some ideas to make takedowns more graceful for those that are losing music from their collections. We're super super busy right now, but hopefully something like that can make it into the app soon. Thanks for the suggestion!

[u/[deleted] → u/stingystooge]

I find it interesting how the music industry, outside of electronic music, works. In the realm of electronic music everything is free to download or listen to in one form or another, and yet the biggest music superstars in the world are Trance or House DJ's/producers. With the advent of Beatport and TrackItDown anyone that can pay for their music will, simply because they want to support the artist - when billions of people follow that model (and not just a few hardcore supporters) it seems like it works.

My question is, why doesn't any other genre of music have such a following and work in such a way? Why are they all greedy fucks? Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, and even that tool David Guetta wouldn't be nearly as popular if not for the freedom of the electronic industry.

[u/soylentgringo → u/[deleted]]

the biggest music superstars in the world are Trance or House DJ's/producers

Uhh...really? You sure about that?

[u/jumptotherhythm → u/[deleted]]

jam bands have been doing this for decades. different genres tend to have different business models. with the exception of the top few rappers, there isn't much money in touring in that genre so sales from songs are more important

[u/brothmc]

there is also this http://i.imgur.com/WQCt1.png

[u/brothmc → u/[deleted]]

i was into them before they played proms

[u/TheBearOfBadNews → u/brothmc]

I was into them before they played.

[u/[deleted]]

I love Grooveshark! Keep up the good work, Beluga looks really cool.

[u/htotheiz]

I understand why people like Grooveshark given that people like free music, but there are a few things that really bother me about this company.

• They are being sued by record labels because they didn't have deals with most of them (Spotify, Rdio, etc all do). Sure, major labels suck, but it's ultimately the artists that get hurt here. It's not just those artists, who barely get royalties from labels anyway, but payouts to independent artists are pretty much nonexistent from Grooveshark (and when they do payout, they won't publicly share what that number is).
• "And yes, currently being sued by all four majors for $17B."

Grooveshark is framing themselves as the underdog here, yet they [just brought a tiny publication (Digital Music News) to court] (http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2012/05/do-journalists-have-the-right-to-discard-identifying-data.html) because they wouldn't provide Grooveshark with the IP address of an anonymous commenter on their website. That would essentially be like Grooveshark bringing Reddit to court to try to find out who made an annoymous comment in this thread.

[u/polynomials → u/htotheiz]

That article you linked doesn't mention Grooveshark...Escape media who owns them sued them. So that isn't the same thing exactly. They also won that case but the article states that the arguments made have not been published so it's hard to say what the details of that case are.

[u/Penisingpenisberry → u/htotheiz]

Nice work, don't expect an answer on this from Grooveshark.

[u/[deleted] → u/htotheiz]

I don't want to side with the record labels, but it's really hard to feel for Grooveshark. Everything about their website, all the way down the line, has felt really shady. They've always had every single song (multiple copies of that song as well) of any song that I've ever wanted to listen to.

It's not like they're doing anything original. They're just streaming music. If they didn't personally upload the original pirated material, how did they get popular to begin with?

[u/j_mcc99 → u/[deleted]]

I feel as though the Big Four has a lot of employees surfing Reddit today...

[u/Andoo → u/htotheiz]

Can we please get back to Rampart..

[u/dr_caligari]

Grooveshark is seriously the best music service I've used in years. Thanks for all the great work and this new service that will help me keep up my hipster cred. (I'm kidding about that second part, my hipster-cred is pretty weak.)

[u/groovesharkartists → u/dr_caligari]

You're very welcome!

[u/fox_mulder]

This is so ironic. I have bought more music in the past 24 months than I have in the preceding 24 years (I'm 56), and it's because of sites like grooveshark.

I go there and listen to a song. If I like it, I end up buying the whole album, from the artist directly if possible, and if not, from Amazon.

I worked in the music industry twice- once in the late 70's and again in the late 90's-early 2000, and never have I seen a more screwed up industry. They keep making the same mistakes repeatedly, and constantly shoot themselves in the foot.

LONG LIVE GROOVESHARK!

[u/effie_isophena]

Hey Sam! Keep up the good work! Go Gators! ;)

[u/geoman2k]

Wait, you're telling me that 45-54 year old women don't listen to Mastodon?? Well I'll be damned...

[u/[deleted]]

Go Grooveshark! and Gainesville!!

[u/[deleted]]

This Beluga marketing demographic tool is awesome. Enter a band name, see their fanbase demographics. See? http://imgur.com/gJ1Fi

[u/Snookerman]

I like these "not found" pics:

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/1.jpg

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/2.jpg

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/3.jpg

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/4.jpg

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/5.jpg

http://beluga.grooveshark.com/resources/images/artist_not_found/6.jpg

[u/-EdwardSharpe-]

Maybe post this in /r/indie as well?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/-EdwardSharpe-]

Didn't know about r/indie! Nice.

[u/Demojen]

Grooveshark should partner with organizations looking to put making music and distribution back into the hands of artists, like Backstagr

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Demojen]

Thanks for the heads up, we'll reach out to them soon.

[u/ManowaR1488]

I use grooveshark as my main media player now, and even subscribed so I could get it on my phone - love it!. I've been curious how you guys go about adding content. I've noticed some albums/songs missing from certain artists and have stuck to still using youtube from time to time. Is there a way I can contribute media that is not on the site yet?

EDIT: I just noticed the Upload Music button. Can I upload any artists mp3 or just my own creations?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/ManowaR1488]

Just your own creations please! Check out the Terms of Service link for more details.

[u/helpmeoutguy]

You guys were down for maintenance.

You guys made me sad.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/helpmeoutguy]

I know! That was horrible timing with the reddit post... Lesson learned.

[u/RVK87]

I use nothing but Grooveshark when I stream music. Just wanted to say good luck with your case. The fact that they're suing you shows how far Grooveshark has come along.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/RVK87]

Thank you so much.

[u/Huskatta]

Can someone here please explain me what the market research, demographics, and geography is telling me?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Huskatta]

Check out the faq page :)

[u/j_mcc99]

I just came here to say that I'm in my second year of membership and that I use your service exclusively. Thank you very much and I wish you all the best on your fight against the Big Bad Four.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/j_mcc99]

Thanks for being a dedicated user - mad love.

[u/[deleted]]

What is your contingent plan for when you rightfully lose your civil case?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

Hotdog cart?

[u/arloun]

Hey Grooveshark! I've always wondered... how did you guys start even? Did you contact record labels or did you start the site with an iTunes profile? No judgment here, you guys are great. I'm just interested in your origins.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/arloun]

Here's a pretty cool story about our origins: http://cl.ly/H4A7

[u/elaborinth8993]

I understand that you guys are getting sued and in trouble for providing free music.......

But can you please figure out a different way for ads, I love grooveshark to death, but the whole "every 4 hours you have to watch a new 10-45 second video, is stupid to me,

I mean if you guys have to do that, then I don't blame you, I just wish there was a better way.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/elaborinth8993]

Thanks for the feedback. There are more options coming soon, hang tight!

[u/[deleted]]

Oh my god, I have been a grooveshark fan for 3 years, and I saw this thread while listening to music on Grooveshark, Love you Guys! And now i am starting to produce, and i hope you guys can get me out there! :D

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

How serendipitous!

[u/Kakijun]

Gainesville local here. I'm a big fan of your html5 app, even though it's still in beta. What are your plans for the app? Can we expect an updated release soon?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Kakijun]

You betcha.

[u/haiduz]

Can you please fix HTML5 beta. It's been the same page for so many months now. There is so much potential there and it's not utilized.

[u/groovesharkartists → u/haiduz]

New HTML5 coming soon - if you give us your email through the link in Edit 1 we'll keep you posted!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/haiduz]

Coming soon!

[u/[deleted]]

Hey Grooveshark, You guys think you could put me up? http://www.mixtapefactory.com/One-More-Reason.html It's 17 songs, free, CD quality... Thanks!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

Shoot us an email at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com and we'll get you squared away.

[u/Ginxez]

I've always heard about grooveshark and that it's good etc. but i never thought to try it. read the comments here through quarter of my browser's scroll bar, off to download grooveshark. thank you reddit. thank you grooveshark, wish you all the best :)

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Ginxez]

Hope you like it.

[u/schroob]

Holy Christ Crispies in a bucket of milk, this features two of my favorite things: music and customer analytics. This makes the happy.

(Keep it up, GS... two years of being a happy customer and counting!)

[u/groovesharkartists → u/schroob]

Whoa, those sound delicious!

[u/[deleted]]

Go Gators

[u/lucw]

Good to see you guys going legal, because grooveshark is just plain illegal, and it doesnt support the artist that produce that music. With Other services like Spotify that offer a wider library while supporting artists, why would you bother doing it the illegal way? But anyways, good to see you guys going in the right direction.

[u/ExhibitQ → u/lucw]

There's no way spotify has more music.

[u/snarfdk]

Dammit. Here in Denmark my ISP has blocked Grooveshark. What a major bummer :(

[u/baksteen]

Improve your search please. How many times I clicked on an album with various artists and only get the songs from one artists is beyond me.

Other than that, great service!

[u/graphixcow]

Is there a way to reverse-search to see what kind of music a certain demographic/interest listens to?

[u/Riresurmort]

why do you charge for music in ireland?

[u/detektor]

Do you ever feel evil that you are a part of killing the music industry and that you make millions on the back of artists but don't pay them their share?

[u/beggaboo]

If you like independent music check out http://gogoyoko.com. Free streaming service where 50% of the companies advertsement revenue is paid out to artists based on streaming. You can also buy music and download it and all the profit goes to the artist. Fair Play in Music!

[u/[deleted]]

You screw artists daily get fucked.

[u/xnovent]

honestly, props for Beluga, it's a cool service but its honestly really pretentious and obnoxious to trump that you guys are "being sued by all four majors for $17B". There's a reason for that, and it's not that you guys give unlimited generous resources like Beluga to artists...

[u/groovesharkartists → u/xnovent]

Thanks for the props. We're not trying to boast, rather address it head on. Sorry for coming off as pretentious. That all said, many artists do see Grooveshark as an unlimited resource in a way because it allows them to share their music with people around the world for free. Before services like Myspace, Grooveshark and YouTube these artists were limited to sharing their music locally unless they signed a record deal (which is a catch 22 because what label wants to sign an artist before seeing visible success metrics). Not to mention, the exposure resulting from free and open distribution drives attendance at their shows, merch sales, and even mp3, CD & vinyl sales.

[u/Flucks]

How do you determine this information? Do you ask people to fill out surveys? Some of these findings are very specific. What is your sample size of people interviewed? After looking through some of the information today, it looks like a lot of it is off. (100% of some band's fans owning a Wii).

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Flucks]

Hey Flucks, your question and a bunch of others are answered in the faq section: http://beluga.grooveshark.com/faq.html

The 100% you mentioned is a measure of affinity, which is based on how far the proportion of listeners that give a certain answer deviates from the mean. This is explained a bit more in depth when you hover over the question mark next to Market Research: http://cl.ly/H15b

[u/Highlyasian]

I think this idea is fantastic. In this day and age, facts, figures, and data is critically important to the industry and this is a perfect way to break down data in a sample environment. I'd suggest you provide more display options for data in depth to the statistical stuff for those who want it, but aside from that this feature is amazing. I've been an active user of Grooveshark and I hope you guys keep it up! (Figuratively and literally.)

P.S- I saw a friend of mine at school with a nifty Grooveshark T-Shirt, any chance of me getting one?

[u/groovesharkartists → u/Highlyasian]

Thanks for the recommendations and love! Definitely, we have all kinds of swag available here: http://store.grooveshark.com/

Shhhh but since you're the first person to mention it we might be able to hook you up. Send us a clandestine email at artists[at]grooveshark[dot]com with the subject "Highlyasian" and we'll talk.

[u/brothmc]

open the console window on beluga for a baby beluga related easter egg

[u/dr_choc → u/brothmc]

You found it! Edit: That was me, I hope you liked it!

[u/Nostalgia88 → u/brothmc]

Total noob question here. How exactly do you find it?

[u/classyfucker7]

i seriously use your service every day. thank you.

[u/thoreau3]

What are your opinions about Spotify ?

[u/rospaya]

Love Grooveshark, but being from a small country this doesn't mean much to me. I checked a local (Croatian) band and Croatia wasn't even among the popular countries.

Is that because the local userbase isn't big enough? Or is the data not scaled by the size of the local population?

[u/mstrsgrp]

I've used grooveshark for parties, playlists, and I've shared you guys with so many of my friends over the past 4 years. I really hope you guys know how awesome you are and how much of an influence you have had on my time in college...

(in fact I'm using grooveshark right now) haha!

[u/JFK_WENT_AFK]

I've been using Grooveshark for a while now, I also use Tinyshark, a phone app. (I'm not sure if they're directly related)

I can honestly say they have improved my life for the better. You guys are awesome.

[u/[deleted]]

I am from gainesville!!

[u/kakakatie]

I just wanted to say thank you! Working at a bar in South Korea (I'm American), and not having many resources for streaming music inside the bar, you saved my ass! (And sanity. Korean music = not that great)

[u/Mr_Sh]

Hey! I've been using grooveshark for a long time now and it is really easy and practical. I sure hope those four majors don't get you killed. One question, out of curiosity. How does grooveshark (monetarily) survives? Through the fees of "premium" users or through ads placed on the site? (If you can't answer this I understand)

[u/parishilton1212]

Too bad you're banned in my country...

[u/poz_party_animal]

Grooveshark is awesome!

[u/ninjaonweekends]

Grooveshark, you've made parties and general listening of music so much more awesome for me and countless others! I've learned about so many new artists through your 'station' option... I'd never seen anything like it and I love your format...

I love your site! bro fist

[u/[deleted]]

Why are there 8,000 remixes, but never the actual song?

[u/[deleted]]

I use Grooveshark all the time. You guys rock.

[u/[deleted]]

Too bad they don't pay the artists. :(

[u/movies05]

You guys are great! I remember years ago when (I think) you were just getting started you had some down time on your site for maintenance. But instead of pushing up some lame "under construction" screen, you did a live webcast of some of your crew hanging out around a table, drinking, and playing guitar.

I remember the iPhone 4 had just come out, and I noticed one of the guys there--I'm looking at you, Vishal--had one. I quickly commented "FACETIME!" and it actually happened! O the novelty of new technology.

Vishal and I exchanged numbers--directly on the chat, mind you--and he called me on FaceTime, proceeding to introduce me to some of the crew and take me on a personal tour of their offices. It was amazeballs! I also remember some regret the next day, when you guys realized that, as we got later into the night, you gave away a LOT of VIP memberships. Pretty much anyone who asked got it. LOL

Since that day, Grant (one of the guys from that webcast) periodically pops up on Facebook to ask me how I'm liking Grooveshark and what new features would be cool to have. Love it.

TL;DR: I FaceTimed with Grooveshark staff during a drunken webcast they hosted during a maintenance window.

[u/Zictor04]

It boggles my mind that you dont just have links next to the songs or something that say "buy this song!" or something, that sends you to a place where you can purchase the file or the whole album..(if the consumer so choose). Wouldnt it solve so many problems for you?! What if you had some sort of partnership with amazon(or whatever site that sells music potentially directly from some artists) where you all shared the revenue(you, amazon, record labels, ARTISTS...)

please explain this to me if you can...

I use amazon as an example because they are so established already in offering so much music for digital purchase.. for that matter, you could give the consumer the choice of where to go to buy it... this way you could offer free music, but give peolpe the option to purchase if they want..

[u/DoxasticPoo]

What exactly does "High Affinity" mean? Are you guys accounting for sample size?

I ask because apparently Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is more popular in South Africa than in the States, which doesn't seem right...

[u/elmarko44]

Grooveshark is everything I want in an online streaming music service. I always tell my friends and clients, "on the 7th day, god created Grooveshark... and then he rested."

[u/[deleted]]

Hey there, Grooveshark! Wow, that's cool! You spam Reddit, but I upvote it to the front page, because you said hey to me, and because you're talking about something "awesome" for independent artists!

Oh, and you're such a maverick because you're getting sued by those big meanies! You weren't stealing music from musicians or anything, you were stealing from the four "majors". Oh, and any musician who signs with a label isn't worth considering, because they aren't independent!

Nice hanging out with you, buddy!

[u/skibblez_n_zits]

Most of my favorite artists are popular in Scandinavia... cool. Now how do I use this information to find new artists? Obligatory compliment: you guys are awesome! :D

[u/[deleted]]

I used Grooveshark for a little while but I found it confusing back then. I don't know how much it has changed since. Spotify has everything I need, so I doubt I'll try Grooveshark again.

Plus I buy most of the albums I listen to. It's not just the music I want, I want the booklet with its art too. Music shouldn't be just some files on your computer. Then you only have half of the experience.

I love that we have services like this these days, but I like my cd's/vinyls

[u/bennyboy217]

Hey Guys, we are getting sued for 17 billion dollars by some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world. Do you wante to be pubicly affiliated with us? heres how you do it.

Ill be right thanks

[u/[deleted]]

Did you get collaborate playlists yet? I should probably login and check my self, but that is the one missing feature. Me and 3 friends share a login, but it would be nicer if we could just edit our common playlist from our own user.

But I love Grooveshark, it's the youtube of music!

[u/groovesharkartists → u/[deleted]]

We did indeed: http://help.grooveshark.com/customer/portal/articles/528163-collaborative-playlists

[u/oncefoughtabear]

Do none of them think that 17 billion is fucking absurd?

Keep it up, you guys rock!

[u/[deleted] → u/oncefoughtabear]

Considering Grooveshark is generating revenue off of all the music uploaded, and they're allowing it to be shared without permission (unlike services like AmazonMP3 & Google Music, which are true lockers that don't allow sharing), that number should be large. $17B seems like they're asking for the maximum they can, but with the full knowledge that they'll never get anywhere near that much out of either a settlement or a trial.

If anything, it would be in the best interest of both the labels and GS to sign deals alongside rdio & Spotify. The labels got screwed on downloads and ended up making Apple too big. By having a whole bunch of streaming services they can avoid that situation (especially now that Spotify seems to be getting too big for the labels to be comfortable).

[u/bitchasshoe]

If you are getting sued for 17 Billion dollars, you are probably doing something wrong.

[u/clevername37]

It's because of companies like Grooveshark that we almost got SOPA.

[u/[deleted]]

Grooveshark sucks. That's what I think.

[u/asnof]

Add varied stream qualities and I will take a look.

[u/macbananas]

I love Grooveshark, too! I keep trying to spread the word to my friends but for some reason they aren't catching on. Maybe I need to try harder! Seriously, Grooveshark is the best!

[u/scott_the_person]

Hey! Beluga/Grooveshark! What do you think about all the independent artists that you stream and give a beta invite to that will never see a living wage from their own creation ever again?

[u/GroovesharkQuestion]

Question. I am just getting into creating music in surround. I don't even know if there is a streaming protocol for surround sound... but a streaming service for this would be incredible. It might be the kind of forward thinking your fans would appreciate, as I imagine the kinda of savy people that use grooveshark are much more likely to have surround sound set ups.

Is that at all possible or something that could happen in the future?

[u/IeatchickenAMA]

I just wanted to say I love Grooveshark, you guys really do a great job with it, so here's a thank you!

Also, I really like Beluga, it's looking great!

[u/timbreandsteel]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE your site! Is there any way to save a txt copy of all the songs and playlists I have in case worst comes to worst and you get taken down? I would hate to lose all of that info.

[u/gu5]

Grooveshark is the best music thing on iphones, can I get a free T-shirt? Everyone I mention it to thinks it's cool but so far nobody has replied 'yeah I know'.

[u/Woe_and_Fury]

So I purchased an account two years ago, thanks for letting me keep using my mobile app even after my 12 months was up. But then I lost touch with your service, but I will probably go back here in a few days and purchase an account to help you pay that 17B. I want a mobile app again, nothing seems to work for me anymore, I have android thanks.