I really can’t believe this site is still up. Not only still up, but gaining in popularity against the heavyweight, Pandora. Coming from a loyal Pandora fan, Grooveshark has still got to be the best online music option in the United States (Euro has Spotify). Grooveshark offers both on-demand songs from an ultra-comprehensive music library and they also have a Radio option which boasts pandora-like song suggestions based on your feedback.

The only problem is that they are obviously distributing copyrighted music and don’t have permission from major record companies to do so. So either they run the clock out and wait to get sued/shut down for the illegal distribution OR they sign deals to pay the record companies in exchange for distribution rights. The latter option hasn’t proven an easy model to crack. Check this Techcrunch Teardown on Pandora. Pandora made some big sacrifices in the listening experience to pay the record company’s royalty of .097 cents per song played (even a partial play).  Grooveshark’s current “freemium” model won’t generate enough revenue alone so they may also limit their Radio option in a similar manner to Pandora: more banner ads, less song switching, and commercials every few tracks. In addition, Grooveshark may be forced to severely limit the on-demand music feature. Still, they may be up to the challenge of going legitimate since they recently signed a deal with EMI to license their music catalog.

To highlight their legal issues even more, recently Grooveshark’s iPhone app was rejected from the App Store (you can still get it on your jailbroken phone). Don’t get me wrong…I love Grooveshark. I am listening to some obscure hipster/emo rock on it right now (Bright Eyes, anyone?).  However, I predict that they fade away in popularity as they try to overcome the same challenges that Pandora is currently dealing with.

Tags: Websites · Technology · Music ·