The sordid tale of Grooveshark took a few more odd twists in the past week. First, it was thought that the black sheep of online music services had regained a friend in Google. After being kicked out of Google’s app store over a year ago, Grooveshark’s mobile app for the Android platform had magically reappeared, prompting Grooveshark to issue a press release announcing its return, a bright spot among Grooveshark’s storied troubles, which have been well documented here on TMT. Pretty much all the important players in the online and music worlds have severed ties with the music search engine or are actively suing the site for some form of copyright infringement.
The ever-positive Grooveshark (they should make their mascot into a children’s cartoon character given the company’s unflappable way of always seeing the bright side of things) had the following to say, as reported by Billboard:
After working closely with Google to get rogue apps removed, we’re delighted that the official Grooveshark app has been reinstated in the Android market,” the statement reads. “Grooveshark is dedicated to helping music fans search, discover and share music while pioneering new artist promotion, distribution and monetization techniques. We look forward to continuing to build a relationship with Android and leverage this fantastic platform for our partners.
TMT almost went to print with that story, but we stopped the presses after finding out from Hypebot that, once again, the Grooveshark app had been removed from Google’s app store, Play. Just like Google and RIAA turned down the offer to comment on the reinstatement, there has been no word yet from anyone on why it was unceremoniously removed yet again.
The good news for Grooveshark? Any savvy users who actually want to use the service (instead of say, Spotify or any of the other internet radio apps out there) will easily find it available for download directly from the Grooveshark site. While Google seems to not want to explicitly support Grooveshark publicly, they’re not going so far as to try and sue the app (or the site itself) out of existence to appease the rights holders of the music the site finds and provides for users, similar to how Google has moved forward with their digital locker services even without securing formal licensing agreements with the major labels.
There are surely more chapters in this ongoing story, so stay tuned for more tales in the ongoing saga that is Grooveshark: The Little Illegal Site That Could.
• Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com
