

Ask HN: How legal is Grooveshark's model? - wesleyzhao

Is there business of providing free streaming songs when searched sustainable?
======
asharp
I believe that the songs they play are properly licensed, much like radio
stations. I also believe this cost them a stupidly large amount of money.

So I believe your question can be rephrased "Will the cut the studios ask for
be insufficient to bankrupt grooveshark or other streaming media suppliers?"

~~~
mryan
At various times I have seen songs that look like they have been uploaded from
someone's MP3 collection (e.g. search for "mp3") - this makes me wonder how
legit their licensing really is. Although perhaps they recognise which songs
are being played and pay the appropriate people, but I can't really see the
music industry going for that.

~~~
asharp
It seems as though you are correct.
[http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/13/grooveshark-slips-past-
emis...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/13/grooveshark-slips-past-emis-lawyers-
signs-new-licensing-agreement-instead/) They have signed with some labels and
as such can legally play some content. On the other hand, they were recently
kicked off android over copyright concerns, so apparently they arn't airtight
[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/04/google-kicks-
gro...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/04/google-kicks-grooveshark-
out-of-the-android-market.ars)

------
dmerfield
Spotify is making the freemium model work in the UK & other parts of Europe.
However, Spotify's success is partly due to their extraordinarily high free-
to-premium conversion rate (upwards of 20%).

