Grooveshark starts online radio service in 2015

Grooveshark will offer an internet radio service from next year, in which it will pay royalties to the rights holders for songs played. The service is called Broadcasts and should cost 99 cents per month.

A Grooveshark spokesperson confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that an internet radio service will be launched from January. With Broadcasts, Grooveshark is following in the footsteps of services like Pandora. The radio service did not require separate deals with music labels, because the standard radio royalties are paid. With Broadcasts, users can create their own radio stations, among other things.

Broadcasts is Grooveshark’s service that keeps up with the demands of the music industry, the company told The Wall Street Journal. A subscription can be taken out for a price of 99 cents per month. With the low price, Grooveshark aims at “impulse purchases” from users, while the amount is still high enough to generate sufficient turnover, according to the spokesperson. It is not yet known whether the service will also come to Europe immediately.

Grooveshark releases applications for Android via the Play Store and for iOS via the App Store, among other things. Previous Grooveshark services have been banned by Google and Apple for alleged copyright infringement. In the past, the company has been sued several times for failing to license its music services. That changed last year, when a deal was concluded with record company EMI and the legal battle with Sony was ended.

Grooveshark already has a music streaming service on its website. Users can upload their own music or stream it to others. It was precisely because of this functionality that Grooveshark was sued several times: none of the major music labels wanted to issue licenses for this.