14 DAY TRIAL // To say Grooveshark has been having a bad year is somewhat of an understatement. It's being sued by all the four major labels, for different things, and now EMI, the only one it had a deal with, is pulling out saying that it hasn't seen the amount of money it was owed by Grooveshark.
In fact, EMI sued Grooveshark over the matter months ago, but only now terminated the contract. Grooveshark is spinning this as a voluntary move.
"Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI's currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI's pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws," Grooveshark said.
"To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million [1.95 million Euro] to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates. In spite of this, Grooveshark's dedication to artists and rights holders remains the same," it added.
For its part, EMI is arguing that Grooveshark has yet to provide any of the money the labels says it is owed.
Normally, with the EMI deal dead, Grooveshark would have to remove millions of tracks belonging to EMI artists. It's hard to see that happening though, as millions more tracks from the other major labels are available on the site even without any licensing deal.
That's actually the reason why the three other major labels sued Grooveshark in the first place, copyright infringement. What's more, the labels argue that not only are Grooveshark employees aware of infringement, they're encouraging it and even uploading thousands of tracks themselves.
It remains to be seen how all of this will turn out for Grooveshark, but it's difficult to see how the music streaming service could get out of the lawsuits and still operate. It's hard enough to build a music business online without the labels actively suing you, just look at Spotify or better yet MOG which got bought by Beats Electronics.