Grooveshark

As you may have read already today, Grooveshark and EMI Music Group have signed a licensing agreement after months of negotiations.

We’re also equally excited to announce a partnership with Silverback Records who represent awesome artists like Sublime and Slightly Stoopid.

This is great news, and everyone here at Grooveshark is thrilled to be working with as many music rights holders as possible–and helping both fans and musicians find a music home on the web. As more and more people look for a way to experience all the music they love–whether it’s on the web, on their phone, or discovering and loving new artists–Grooveshark will continue to help both musicians and their fans to find the best music experience out there.

And to hear what other people are saying, check out some coverage on:

TechCrunch
AllThingsDigital
ReadWriteWeb
FayerWayer (in Spanish)

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Last week we launched a new service called Grooveshark VIP, hooking users into the best that we have to offer. Some folks have been asking exactly what makes VIP users so special. Other than helping support Grooveshark and being generally very attractive people, what are the benefits?

1) No advertisements on Grooveshark. As much as we enjoy delivering your eyeballs to our corporate sponsor overlords, we feel like pure, uninterrupted connection to the music is more important. VIPs never see any advertisements, getting the full experience in all its musical glory.

2) Cool kids on the block. Grooveshark VIPs get first access to all the newest and truest we have to offer. From exclusive features and options to brand new product launches, you get the funnest music toys on the web before anyone else.

3) Get your voice heard. While you’re trying out all of Grooveshark’s awesome new features, be sure to tell us what you think. VIP users not only get priority support from our team, but as a tester of what’s new we really take your opinion to heart.

So help us out, and we’ll take the best care of you we know how. Got anymore questions? Leave a comment or ask us directly on Twitter.

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For the past year, Grooveshark has been in talks with EMI Records and other copyright holders to negotiate licensing agreements for the use of their content. We are pleased to announce that over the past few months Grooveshark successfully concluded mutually beneficial agreements with artists, labels, and publishers that we hope to be a template for other such agreements with additional copyright holders.

Recently, EMI Records chose to abandon the template we’ve built with the help of other major copyright holders and opted for their traditional intimidation tactic of filing a lawsuit as a negotiating tool. We find the use of this negotiating strategy counterproductive, as Grooveshark has been willing to conclude an agreement with EMI Records that is economically sustainable for both EMI Records and a start-up company the size of Grooveshark.

Grooveshark is run by a group of young and passionate musicians. We love music, we make music, and we believe that the use of all music should be paid for. We adopted this core philosophy at our inception and to date have concluded agreements with hundreds of record labels, major US performance rights organizations, and thousands of independent artists who support Grooveshark’s business model. (See: Grooveshark Artists)

As musicians, we support the rights of copyright holders and strive to sign sustainable agreements with all content owners, ensuring that all artists get paid–or we agree to remove content from our system in accordance with our DMCA Takedown Policy. We hope that EMI Records eventually follows the lead of the many forward-thinking labels we are already working with, who would rather get their artists exposure and a fair share of our revenue than block content access and force customers to illegal networks.

We understand that the economy of the digital music business is in a state of flux, and we hope to help ease this transition by providing the required new tools and services that lead to the next generation of the music industry. We respect the ownership rights of the major labels and publishers, and our core mission has always been to compete with piracy by offering a service that is genuinely better than what illegal networks offer, while also ensuring fair payment to copyright holders. Our next important step on our road to success is to conclude a mutually beneficial agreement with EMI Records that is sustainable for both EMI and Grooveshark.

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Remember that little link we had on Grooveshark for the past few weeks annoyingly nagging politely asking if you’d vote for Grooveshark in CNET’s 2009 Webware Awards?

We work hard here at Grooveshark, and simply put: we’re delighted just to know that all the late hours and energy drink abuse is worth it to you guys. And while you folks are out in the world being awesome 24/7 365, we’ll be here ready to bring the music you love.

Thanks for voting for us at Grooveshark! from ben westermann-clark on Vimeo.

Speaking of music, I mentioned last week that our quickest way to share tunes has a new (even quicker) hangout. Tinysong, Grooveshark’s baby brother, sprouted legs and got involved with awesome Web 2.0 sharing site Ping.fm. If you aren’t familiar, Ping.fm is one of the funnest* sites for keeping your social (network) life current.

Even cooler: they’re out first partner of our brand new Tinysong API. Say what? Tinysong now gives developers access to the Grooveshark catalog of (millions+millions of) songs–and a simple way to call a quick link to any one of them. Damn.

Talk about the music spreading: check out Grooveshark for Wordpress. It’s our latest launch, letting you post playlists to your Wordpress blogs. What up? And once you post some music to your blog, be sure to let me know in the comments!

*Yes, I know ‘funnest’ isn’t a word. Well it is now.

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Ping!

While us sharks were swimming down into the deepest depths of the dark water of music, we resurfaced with something pretty cool: a new API. As of today, any interested developers or music aficionados can use the Grooveshark Tinysong API to get links to absolutely any song in our collection.

Want to be able to grab a link to almost any tune in the world dynamically on your site? Check it.

Even cooler: while we were swimming the ocean blue, we got hailed by a cool new partner to help launch our new API–Ping.fm. Probably the easiest way to dispatch updates to multiple social sites at once (and definitely the coolest), today Ping.fm launched some new updates to their service; including a kick-ass implementation of Tinysong that lets their users instantly blast tunes to their friends all across the web.

So check them out. Check us out. And check out our inbox if you have any cool ideas, thoughts, or suggestions for an integration with our newest and bluest API.

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Heads up! Grooveshark will be down for scheduled maintenance from 10PM until 6 AM (EST) on Saturday May 2. Don’t panic! We’re moving some servers to a faster data center so that we can keep providing quick, easy access to all your favorite tunes.

If you’re interested, we’ll also be posting updates, photos, and short videos live from the data center where the work is happening. Just come to Grooveshark during the allotted time, and see our (un?)pretty faces!

We’re growing fast, so occasionally we have to go down so that we can keep giving you the best service we know how. But not to worry, we won’t do it too often–and we’re incredibly grateful for your patience, and sticking around even during our early stages.

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