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Grooveshark Shuts Down

555 points| sskates | 11 years ago |grooveshark.com

270 comments

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[+] physcab|11 years ago|reply
Grooveshark, I want you to know I loved you. As a user. As an ex-employee. You taught me so much. I remember my task as an intern was to turn Autoplay into something more beyond office employees voting on their favorite genres of music. I remember my first attempt at an algorithm, everyone got Coldplay as their recommended artist. I remember when we discovered Hadoop for the first time and our analysis on TBs of data took minutes instead of weeks. I remember when Ed accidentally dropped the Artist table on master, then quickly stopped the replication process before all hell broke loose. I remember when Nate made it so every image on any website I visited on my laptop showed sexually explicit material when investors came for a visit. I remember when Skyler met his (now) wife. I remember learning about advertising and meeting Less Than Jake. I remember learning not to run a Group By on mysql when it had 8 billion rows in the middle of the day during peak use. I remember going without a salary for 6 months because we had no money. And yet we persevered. You guys and girls gave me excellent real world experience at a time when I shouldn't have been trusted with a computer. Thank you for all the good times and the great culture you instilled. Hope the Atlantic gives everyone free tallboys tonight.
[+] jeswin|11 years ago|reply
Would you be ok with telling us whether best practices have been followed for storing passwords and other sensitive user information? I ask because all the information has now been turned over to people (RIAA etc?) who I don't trust my data with.

Also, you and your team made a great app; I was among the early users. When something is good you tell everyone. When something is really, really good, you don't tell people for a while. :) It was that good.

[+] hkmurakami|11 years ago|reply
Grooveshark was always my music service of choice. It never asked me for a login before it opened its service to me (on desktop web). I felt that it never took me hostage in any way. I felt that it put its users before itself.

I will miss it.

[+] kleer001|11 years ago|reply
That sounds like a lovely time, would make a great book or movie.

Personally I'd never really even heard of it except a long time ago, let alone used it. Nothing personal. Just one music service in a dense forest of same. That said, I'm of the opinion that a public Radio station and Library should be the model for transmission and curation of works. The shutting down of Grooveshark fills me with sonder, wonder, and sorrowful nostalgia for the earlier years.

[+] pvnick|11 years ago|reply
I just want to reflect everything you said. I wouldn't be half the programmer I am now without the experience I got working at Grooveshark, and not since then have I truly felt like I was doing something that was imminently changing the world for the better.

Also I hope things are going well for you now physcab, since we haven't seen each other in a few years.

[+] circlefavshape|11 years ago|reply
FWIW I loved grooveshark too (their play queue was the best of any of the music services I've used), but ... going without a salary for 6 months? Are you insane?
[+] MattyRad|11 years ago|reply
Funny side note, I discovered Less Than Jake on Grooveshark many years ago.
[+] Syrup-tan|11 years ago|reply
The site is just an image with small text, so I've transcribed it here;

---

Dear music fans,

Today we are shutting down Grooveshark.

We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite the best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.

That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.

As part of the settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.

At the time of our launch, few music services provided the experience we wanted to offer - and think you deserve. Fortunately, that’s not longer the case. There are now hundreds of fan friendly, affordable services available for you to choose from, including Spotify, Deezer, Google Play, Beats Music, Rhapsody and Rdio, among many others.

If you love music and respect the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible, use a licensed service that compensates artists and other rights holders. You can find out more about the many great services available where you live here: http://whymusicmatters.com/find-music.

It has been a privilege getting to know so many of you and enjoying music together. Thank you for being such passionate fans.

Yours in music, Your friends at Grooveshark April 30, 2015

--

Source at https://denpa.moe/~syrup/grooveshark-notice.txt

[+] 27182818284|11 years ago|reply

    As part of the settlement agreement with the major record companies, 
    we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe
    clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and
    hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and
    intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.
Yeah Grooveshark was really getting in the way of me paying for that album ($10) and song ($1.something) I paid for in the last couple of days.

Oh and that $1 song? I bought it because I heard it on one of those videos-that-is-really-just-a-still-frame-so-they-can-share-the-music for the song. Also, what is Grooveshark again? I've heard of it, but I don't think I've ever used it.

My experiences can't be atypical, can they? Was it really a threat worth shutting down and all of the legal expenses? This just hurts me because literally in the last couple of days I watched an unlicensed copy of a song, liked it, and then bought it because I could and I wanted better quality sound. The (different) album was a similar pipeline--A link on Reddit directed me to the song (in the form of a YouTube video) and I then ended up buying the album.

I can't be the only one.

[+] noonespecial|11 years ago|reply
"If you love music and respect the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible, use a licensed service that compensates artists and other rights holders."

It seems so easy compensate that second group that I work harder breathing each day. That first group, it seems like I could get a message to mars easier than to send them a whole dollar.

[+] ignoramous|11 years ago|reply
This makes me immensely sad as a long time user of Grooveshark.

Such contrast in fortunes when you compare YouTube [0] and Grooveshark. Grooveshark, for most part, was an amazing service. They were at the forefront of UI design, brilliant at surfacing new and related content (music), excellent at quality of service (variable bit-rate buffering).

You would think that with a good exit to a company like Yahoo or Amazon, it could have really been a hit. I could easily imagine Google gobbling them up and merging it with Vevo. It isn't a dramatically different service than YouTube. But it wasn't to be.

Doesn't it make sense to open source code when you know the product is dying?

[0] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/23/cheaper-bandwidth-...

[+] WettowelReactor|11 years ago|reply
>> Doesn't it make sense to open source code when you know the product is dying?

That can depend on how much of the code base is their own. If they integrated any licensed components then they may not have the resources necessary to clean it up for release.

[+] sebastianavina|11 years ago|reply
I used grooveshark, but now streamer extension on chrome is a better option. youtube has all the music anyway
[+] olalonde|11 years ago|reply
They had to hand over all their IP as part of the settlement so I doubt the product will be open sourced.
[+] bmat|11 years ago|reply
As a native of Gainesville, FL (where Grooveshark is based), this is really sad news. Certainly they made mistakes, but what few see is how much they contributed to the tech community here. Their CTO has personally mentored many companies in the area, and they have a presence at pretty much every tech-related event. I can't think of any other company within a 100-mile radius that can fill that role now that they're gone. Hopefully they'll spin off some new businesses in the area. Otherwise this will be a huge blow to Gainesville's already struggling tech and startup communities.
[+] zzalpha|11 years ago|reply
Well, the flipside is, let's face it, their business was pretty darn shady... not much a role model for other up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

I absolutely grant you their technology was pretty cool, and the community features they built are still unreplicated anywhere.

But I'd rather laud businesses who manage to combine cool technology with an ethical, sustainable business model.

[+] andrewjkerr|11 years ago|reply
I completely agree with you. Hopefully something will come to fill the space that Grooveshark left, but Grooveshark did a lot for the tech community there. GroovesharkU, presentations, events, etc. They'll definitely be missed.
[+] ladybro|11 years ago|reply
First Liger, now Grooveshark. I only have a semester left but a large portion of the Gainesville I know and love has vanished pretty quickly in the last month :(
[+] FooNull|11 years ago|reply
I'm sooooo glad I was paying a yearly fee for a VIP membership... and now I can't even get a copy of my playlists. All of those obscure songs I fell in love with are gone. I wonder if the information they turned over included my credit card billing data...

<sigh>

Is it time to build a personal, private, self-hosted, open-source grooveshark clone?

[+] lcfg|11 years ago|reply
You can probably recover your playlist. (Instructions for Chrome)

On the computer you used grooveshark on: visit the website, open developer tools, open "resources tab", click on local storage->grooveshark.com. Now find the key called 'libraryXXXXXX' where the X's are numbers. Right-click it, "edit value" and copy/paste that data here: https://json-csv.com.

Source of instructions: http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/34goss/meta_groovesha...

[+] Syrup-tan|11 years ago|reply
I hope playlist data wasn't part of the settlement, and that we will be able to recover it.

It would be detrimental to the artists to have some of their fans not be able to find them again, right? Perhaps record companies care less about the artists which are forgettable in the first place.

[+] toomuchtodo|11 years ago|reply
> Is it time to build a personal, private, self-hosted, open-source grooveshark clone?

Popcorn Time [1] meets Spotify?

[1] https://popcorntime.io/

[+] dublinben|11 years ago|reply
You can already run your own streaming service with Subsonic today. What are you waiting for?
[+] largote|11 years ago|reply
I switched from Grooveshark VIP to Spotify Premium years ago, however I came back every once in a while to listen to remixes that were not available elsewhere from time to time.

I'm sad that there's not even access to the playlists anymore.

[+] bane|11 years ago|reply
Not really open source, but plex works pretty well for hosting and making your private collection accessible. Works awesome with chromescasts as well.
[+] hurin|11 years ago|reply
You could do some anonymous block-chain ledger type-service, really doubt that it would win over simply bit-torrent though, and ultimately I'm kind of biased since I really would prefer that real creators get to exercise their rights.
[+] mikewhy|11 years ago|reply
You can connect an existing iTunes library to Plex and stream it anywhere.

You can also have Plex organize your music, but I've only ever used the iTunes part

[+] TheLoneWolfling|11 years ago|reply
If you don't have an external backup, don't complain about losing data.

Services like Grooveshark are no exception.

[+] sethbannon|11 years ago|reply
"As a part of a settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies' copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights."

Ouch. Sounds harsh. Wonder if they had to turn over the user data as well...

[+] baddox|11 years ago|reply
I wonder if they had to make such an apologetic statement as well.
[+] jasonkostempski|11 years ago|reply
There's a large number of artists who's CDs I've bought because I was able to listen to their entire album on Grooveshark. Artists who's radio songs didn't come close to demonstrating their true skills. Of course, I've also passed on CDs because I was able to find out an artist only has 1 or 2 songs worth listening to. This is seriously going to hinder my discovering of new music. I didn't even know they were in court but I knew it couldn't last.
[+] ladybro|11 years ago|reply
Reposting a reply by Jackson800 to a comment below:

If you act quick, you can access some of your playlist data by logging in here: http://groovebackup.com/

[+] FooNull|11 years ago|reply
WONDERFUL

It didn't have all of my playlists, but I was able to at least recover a small portion of my songs. Some is better than none...

[+] Zardoz84|11 years ago|reply
Thanks bro ! At least I could recover the name of the songs and artist of some songs that I had on grooveshark
[+] 6stringmerc|11 years ago|reply
Dear Grooveshark,

From the first day I saw your service, I had doubts about the legitimacy of what you were doing. After watching YouTube grow into a massive company - building on infringement then turning a corner through appeasement to the legacy media interests - I knew doing a pivot was possible. Every time I saw your name mentioned, it looked like you were refusing to play ball.

Part of me applauds anything that really pisses off the RIAA, and there's another part of me that has rational fear of what the RIAA is capable of doing through legal channels. Your service had a big bullseye painted on it, so I stayed far, far away. I never even bothered to check if my music ended up there...I was too busy focusing on channels I know to at least try to be in-line with artist payment methods (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google, etc). I fully comprehend the notion of Safe Harbors, and also comprehend that there was no way - ever - that you could lawyer up enough to defeat RIAA.

Music is an industry that truly does need to evolve, as the current disruptions are helpful, but still lacking the genius innovation to best connect listeners and content producers in an equitable relationship. Will it ever happen? I'm optimistic. However, this day was inevitable, and as much as I'd like to compliment you on trying, I'm held back by the fact Grooveshark was, for lack of a better term, a white-washed piracy site. Good luck on your next endeavors, and I truly hope you learned from this experience.

- An Independent Musician

[+] daddykotex|11 years ago|reply
I'm actually surprised it lasted so long. The business model was wrong from the beginning.

The thing is that in the early months/years, nothing was working as well as Grooveshark. If the website made the big record make so move, all the Grooveshark team's work was not in vein.

[+] irishcoffee|11 years ago|reply
Just a heads up, its vain, not vein. =))
[+] lucb1e|11 years ago|reply
I knew. I KNEW I should have backed up my music library. I once played a bit with their Javascript front-end and figured out how I could do it, but never got around to. I also planned on asking them to send me a copy -- I'm a paying customer, it seemed reasonable. A copy of the song list of course, not the songs themselves.

Now I only have what is cached locally on my phone. I've disabled WiFi and mobile data and opened the Grooveshark app: phew, it's still there (no remote wipe). I remember less than three days ago my subscription was renewed. The app locally checks the date, so I have a small month to get my data out of there.

One tiny bit of luck: I already figured out how to decrypt the locally stored songs back into mp3s. That's at least something... if I can dig up the script again.

Anyone ideas on how to get the full list back easily? Is there a data archive I can download for my "VIP" account?

Edit: reddit helps out! See: https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/34goss/meta_groovesh...

There is GoodForOneCare's comment with some Javascript (which didn't work for me, but gave me some hints) and there is http://groovebackup.com which retrieved a few playlists for me. That's something at least, whew.

Now let's see about extracting my phone's data...

Edit2: found my decryption script but it doesn't contain their encryption key. Guess I'll have to re-crack it, this time without Wireshark to capture the decrypted data. It's a simple substitution cipher though, shouldn't be too hard.

Edit3: pulling data from my phone, from the root of my sdcard (/dev/block/mmcblk0p16), the files are located in:

    /app/com.grooveshark* for the APK
    /data/com.grooveshark.android.v1 for stuff
    /media/0/Android/data/com.grooveshark.android.v1 for cache and offline files
[+] fma|11 years ago|reply
I was at UF working on another startup when GrooveShark started and was pretty familiar with how they started. One of our co-founders even did some design work for them. GrooveShark always had an awesome user experience, and I always wished their business model would be legitimized so their company can prosper and service consumers as how they should be.

I wish the best of luck to Sam and Josh. I hope they are able to take their passion onto other endeavors. Though UF has a lot of talented students, because Gainesville is a dinky city, it doesn't have the same startup resources as on the west cost. Grooveshark was able to give a lot of students the opportunity to work on something cool and bring some exposure to UF.

[+] mmcclure|11 years ago|reply
I switched to Rdio a few years ago, but before that I was a huge Grooveshark fan. Other commenters have mentioned this as well, but I think Grooveshark was waaaay ahead of their time with their HTML5 interface. I remember being absolutely floored by their big first redesign.

I interned at a quasi-competitor whose deal was to allow you to upload your own music (pre-Google Music) and I remember one of the founders constantly talking about how Grooveshark wouldn't last long with all the lawsuits. That was ~6 years ago, and honestly I'm astonished it took this long.

It's a shame to see it go. I don't have much faith in this happening, but hopefully some of the code makes it out of all this.

[+] SuperPaintMan|11 years ago|reply
I've been a GS user since almost the beginning, back when there was a little java tool for uploading your music collection. GS gave me a way to access my library for free and in a consistent manner over the past decade. I waited for days as my library of 10000+ tracks (90% indie/alt + underground artists) uploaded to their servers.

GS was way ahead of the curve when it came to delivering music easily and widely. The HTML5 interface worked simly everywhere. Using a IE on a 360? 1st gen iPhone? Potato? Search as song, press play, enjoy.

GS filled a niche that Spotify cannot ever fill. Because GS was built upon the libraries of its users, all the little mp3s that had been hoarded, recorded, never officially released, fan remixes and safegaurded had been uploaded with the mainstream content. It was built on what users kept because they knew it could not be replaced. The special, the underground.

So long GS. "Hack the Gibson, hack the Gibson, I'm seedin' BitTorrents like a digital pimp, son."

[+] ctb_mg|11 years ago|reply
Yet another anecdote here... for me, Grooveshark was the genesis of music discovery. Napster, limewire, etc. helped with artists I knew about already. mp3.com helped me with genres but did not expand my library too much. Early Last.fm/audioscrobbler was interesting to see what my friends were listening to, but it was not effortless to discover similar/new music there. Winamp shoutcast stations helped me to broaden my music portfolio, but there was no mechanism to save favorite songs/artists that I had heard, and re-listen to them. GS took the best of all those things and added more.

So I listened to GS for years. I owe GS a lot. Now I wonder if I, or if we had supported them more, would they have not met their demise?

[+] whichfawkes|11 years ago|reply
Does anyone have a good sense for how hard it would be to operate a service like this in a vaguely legal way?

I understand that Grooveshark's own employees were instructed to download music and upload it to Grooveshark. If this had not been the case, or if they could not prove that this was the case, would their service be technically legal (safe harbor laws,etc)?

[+] jmtame|11 years ago|reply
This is really sad news. I used to look at the Grooveshark interfaces with awe. You guys were always on top of your usability and design, right down to the 400 error pages.

I really love the goal you guys had when you started on this journey, and I admire that you were forging a new path. Before all of these music services came out, you were the only reliable option for listening to music the way I wanted to.

Josh, thank you for taking time to share your story with me when I was in college writing Startups Open Sourced. I admire your enthusiasm and persistence, and you seem like an awesome person to work with in any capacity.

I wish everyone at Grooveshark the best.

[+] loceng|11 years ago|reply
Anyone know what patents they held? I wonder if music industry will leverage them to take down other sites who are acting within the law via patent suits.