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Get paid to use new DRM-free iTunes alternative

grooveshark.com — With the RIAA screwing artists AND fans left and right, it's about time that a more balanced system of file sharing was developed. Grooveshark is that system. It's a legal P2P network, and will compensate users and musicians for sharing their MP3s... DRM-free. Is this the long awaited solution to the digital music problem?

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dirtyepiic 1 year 167 days ago, made popular 1 year 166 days ago

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teamtestbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I'm hoping this takes off. Good luck!
- mmilian, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Good luck is right. These guys (and any users who are foolish enough to be the first to show their IPs on the service) are dead in the water.
- h2d2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3"dead in the water"
  
  You mean like imeem.com, that site has hundreds of full albums with on demand streaming. Free and instant gratification. Oh, and no lawsuits... so far.
- mikesbaker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@h2d2
  thanks! I was surprised to find many of my fav. artists there.
- mikesbaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3follow up - IMEEM needs to invest in some more bandwith
- jsaya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Grooveshark combines the best of P2P file sharing and online music purchase sites into one service at www.grooveshark.com. Visitors can browse songs uploaded by other members and pay to download MP3 files with no digital rights management (DRM) technology. Songs vary in price, but cost no more than 99 cents. Grooveshark will pay appropriate royalties to copyright holders by taking commissions from users' transactions and also compensate users with free music for community participation such as uploading songs, fixing song tags, flagging unwanted files or reviewing music. Members will be rewarded based on their level of contribution to the community." and
  "What makes Grooveshark different from other music-downloading applications is that its users will acquire music legally. Record labels and artists will be compensated each time their music is downloaded, eliminating the legal risks of copyright infringement." - http://www.escapemg.com/press.php
  What I don't get is - if MY (illegally obtained) DRM free MP3 is shared and other people PAY to download that... man I'm confused how this works...
- PoVRAZOR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It has to mean that Artists/Labels are the ones to upload the music. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense how this is legal. All the P2P talk is just BS to get the pirate community interested. Is it working?
  
  Either that, or yeah, anyone can upload their content, and it's just a grand scheme like how youtube grew. Pirated stuff goes up, people gravitate towards the site, it gets taken down, and eventually you're left with a semi legit service.
- 4NDr01D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2a large portion of the music I listen to, is near impossible to find publishing for
  
  and I know I work as a Music Licensing and Publishing Agent!
  
  Why should these guys get rich off selling content, without properly reimbursing the artists ?
- Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Why should these guys get rich off selling content, without properly reimbursing the artists ?"
  
  But that's what AllOfMP3 does, and you all seem to love them.
dadofbrook, on 10/12/2007, -21/+3Great! If we need to convert DRM protected music to unprotected WAV, MP3 or WMA, we can use a software named NoteBurner. I recently found it and it works perfect on my computer. http://www.noteburner.com is the web site. Cheers!
vishallllll, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0looks interesting
jthebrain5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15I'm curious as to how they deem this legal, unless they work out some deal with the RIAA...which I seriously doubt especially with their recent Zune episode.
Runawaygerbil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24yeah, how is this legal? i would love to use it but the RIAA are out for blood and i am prone to bad luck.
- cptn_cardboard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13im assuming its not "big bands," just indie ones without a reccord label....
  
  ...which is still pretty awesome
- griz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2So it should say DRM free and Royalty free music. Because anything with a Copyright label on it will be subject to the RIAA knocking on your door.
  How exactly can you get rewarded if there is no inflow of money? Who is funding the rewards?
- aliensito, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Recent news stories on digg speak about record labels moving away from DRM, Yahoo has done it with a couple of tunes, perhaps they will include major bands. Either way, its pretty cool if you get paid for sharing.
- rolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Because anything with a Copyright label on it will be subject to the RIAA knocking on your door."
  
  I assume you know better, but just to clarify -- even though the RIAA attempts to present itself as the defacto representative of all music, in the end they are only a group put together by and representing the major labels, so they only represent the music those companies collectively own. You can look up CDs at riaaradar.com -- there are some wellknown bands that are not under the RIAA.
  
  Also, all recent Music or anything created really is automatically copyrighted - yes, even your school reports. Unless the copyright expired or the author gave it into public domainn.
- JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"How exactly can you get rewarded if there is no inflow of money? Who is funding the rewards?"
  
  The cynic in me says bundled spyware, adware, etc.
phantom317, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Maybe it's an RIAA conspiracy to catch more pirates!

All i know is that they're not gonna get my booty!

ARRRRRR!
chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2no thanks. *checks uTorrent*
- crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Because bittorrent is totally user friendly enough for the average idiot iTunes user... plus, like it or not, it's usually illegal to share music over it.
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13If they cant use uTorrent, then they dont deserve to use it.
- fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Just like linux...
xandifenn, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0my itunes substitute http://seeqpod.com/music
GuruMark, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4They say on their homepage that its a P2P. Why bother with this site to pirate songs when you can do it on limewire or bittorrent?
- hudson99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Guru: P2P does not mean piracy. If you want to pirate music, go ahead and use limewire or bittorrent
  
  Peer to Peer networks (P2P) can be a very useful tool for piracy, and that may even be their primary use at the moment - but they do have other uses, such as this one.
  
  The story here is not piracy or the way they are doing distribution - it's the fact that they are trying to find a good way to sell DRM free music legally.
drjekelmrhyde, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I don't trust this
WorldGroove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4EDIT: Nevermind.

(And this site is Web 2.0 to the extreme).
thewebguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Is this the long awaited solution to the digital music problem?"

no
stesun, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3RIAA will close them down if they share there music. They will never allow DRM-free music, that would destroy there new business model. With independent artists this would work fine and i hope them good luck.
- griz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Why do people assume indy artists always want to give away their music free or let people copy it?
  Sure, they are generally more lax about it, but it should not be assumed.
  I think people need to realize they are getting something and using it. Something that someone created through time and hard work.
  They deserve a paycheck just like anyone does. If tomorrow your boss said that they were going to start giving away your companies services and products for free and that he couldn't pay you any longer, would you be happy about it? Of course not. And everyone wonders why concert ticket prices have skyrocketed over the years. Noone wants to pay for the music, but they want to hear it. The bands need to make a living somehow.
- b612, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3this is why i assume indi artists don't mind sharing their music so much
  
  http://www.gavincastleton.com/text/Thegreatamericanbottleneck.htm
  
  Read these lyrics from an indi artist explaining the situation.
- stesun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hey, i say nothing that they will give away there music for free. I say they are more relax about releasing there music without DRM copy protection. The artist should of cource get money for there work. However the RIAA will never agree that anyone sells there music without DRM.
- whereswaldo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1b612- Right, because that one particular artist speaks for all indie (no, not indi) bands.
soulcatcher78, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Gotta agree on the don't trust sentiment that people seem to be posting here. With all the other file sharing services being sued into either oblivion or going straight, I can't seem to wrap my brain around anyone trying to foist off another "free" P2P network. Hope it works out for those who do try it.
- jgreenberg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It doesn't say anywhere that it will be free, only that it will be "DRM-free"...
andrewufl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the thing about saying that it's legal is, the site itself will get sued, and not the users

..think about allofmp3.com -- the RIAA is suing THEM! not the users themselves. an interesting business model would be a business to set up a "legal" site, and then give away all of the music for free.

people set up shell companies, get sued to all hell, liquidate the company (0 assets), and then rinse..repeat
- aliensito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3In their facebook group it says they ARE compensating copyright holders and artists... allofmp3.com was not. Perhaps this is the difference between them and software used for piracy like Limewire.
  
  Here is their facebook post:
  "We realize that the history of music-sharing is rocky on the internet, but we have plans in place to compensate the music industry for our users' file-sharing.
  
  If you have any other questions, I suggest you create a post on our forum, and we can discuss it at great lengths. :)
  
  Thanks!"
obimk1, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0www.sellaband.com
cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Is this the long awaited solution to the digital music problem?" - I HOPE SO :)
bkhl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How can any of you think this would be illegal? This is obviously about creators sharing their music with the listeners.

Comparing this to iTunes doesn't seem very accurate to me. In fact, this sounds suspiciously like what http://www.jamendo.com/ has already been doing for a while.
- JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm pretty sure Jamendo hasn't been doing this: "It's a legal P2P network, and will compensate *users* ... for sharing their MP3s." I could be wrong, though.
chazzbro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Since all their promo-speak is about indie artists, this is no replacement for iTunes. They still won't be handling artists from the big five. It's just double-speak.

I am all for indie music. I listen to much more of it than the other stuff. But that doesn't mean this is going to nudge legit download services like iTunes or Rhapsody one bit.

I am all for the death of DRM. But I think they'd be a lot wiser to incentivize it for the record companies:

http://chuckbrown.com/the-case-against-digital-rights-management-drm.html
TimRogers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I would like to try it, but it's a typical "coming soon" page.
- aliensito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2signing up for the notify or joining their facebook group gives you access to a 'demo' of sorts.
DeaPeaJay, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'm totally about getting rid of DRM. But honestly, I really don't care about the darn DRM. All my iTunes work just fine on my iPod and I'm not about to get rid of iTunes, it's great. And I'm not about to get rid of my iPod. It's great too. I just don't care. I'm just being honest here, not fanboyish. Being locked into Apple isn't really painful at all, in fact, it's quite an enjoyable experience.
BigSlacker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0So, it's yet another file sharing application. Shrug.
jimmsta, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Um... they're working with MyWay... Y'know, the spyware company? The app is probably, more or less, a big piece of spyware. I look forward to removing this software from customer machines in the future.
- aliensito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Are they working with Wired too? They are just commenting on industry news on their blog. Grooveshark's old site used to have an FAQ page, but for some odd reason they removed it. In it they claimed to have no spyware or adware.
dlong514, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0There is already a legal DRM-free P2P music service out there -- and it's up and running with tons of indie music: www.bitmunk.com.

It uses a Java application instead of Web 2.0.
D34DC311, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'm sorry but I don't see how this is legal, I've got a feeling its the RIAA trying to get people to upload their "pirated" albums, then when they have a ton of users, they turn around and rape you in court.
Looks cool, but until the RIAA is destroyed and no longer is around, then No Thanks.
- dlong514, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe the actual product has a ton of advertising.
dlong514, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wonder if I get paid for the use of my bandwidth.
OMightyColumbia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I think this might be a ploy by the MPAA and RIAA to catch warez pirates
- dlong514, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Eh, I doubt that. They do say that sharing the music isn't free -- and that some of the proceeds will go to the copyright holders.
moolcool, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2honeypot?
DogmaticAtheism, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1sweet! hope you guys do great
dangerdoom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think that this is something different than limewire or grokster. Nowhere on the website does it say the word "download." This could mean nothing, but it could also mean that it's just streaming. But, if it is like limewire, I'll use that too to screw the RIAA. We need to take them down.
Jammer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This still doesn't solve the problem. One person pays, and then shares it out to as many people that want it. Sorry, but being a part-time musician, this really burns me: you want to listen to the artist(s), then each and every digital copy of their MP3 files need to be paid for.

Can you walk into Walmart with a friend that just bought a music CD, and ask the clerk for a free copy of the same CD because your friend already bought his? Of course not -- so why are digital music files any different?

If anything all the teen-tards and other freeloaders who somehow think music should be free will end up settling for much less variety and quality in music, as the people who perform for a living will give up making albums because it doesn't pay. It's either that or live concert tickets will skyrocket in price to try and make up for lost revenue on the album side of the business.
- dlong514, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would expect that this service does pay the copyright holder every time a digital file is transferred. I don't see how it could be legal otherwise.
- Jammer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, I would agree ... but if it is DRM-free, how does one determine when the file is transferred? If I download a DRM-free file and then send a copy over to you, how does the artist get compensated for your copy in this model?
gnawph2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That site is so Web 2.0 it makes my eyes hurt...
- aliensito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1its missing a 'coming soon' or 'beta' sticker :p
neszis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sorry everybody, but you're all wrong. Yes, it is everything it looks like. It is a music P2P that will share common, big-name music as well as indy music. I say this because I'm a close friend of the creator of the program, and I've been following it since the beginning. The reason it's allowed is because the labels are still getting paid. Payment for the download of the music gets split up between all the people who can benefit: the label, Grooveshark, and the seller (which is any person, like you or me). The labels have been LOVING this idea, and are wholly supporting Sam's work.
- JohnRomano, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Yeah, does "Sam" have 50 people working 24/7 to determine who are the owners of the millions of songs that will be available or is "Sam" just concerned with the Major labels that can sue him?
WRacer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0What am I not understanding here? Theft is theft. Theft destroys people's lives. I have many friends in the music biz. They are losing their jobs, studios are closing, the big labels are hardly signing new acts. Why? Because it isn't profitable with everyone using new technology to steal music. It's very simple. Stealing music has become normalized. It's insane. If everyone could put a loaf of bread in their home printer and make another loaf of bread, what would happen to the farmers? The grocery stores? I have no concept how these sites are legal. The only mistake the labels made has not been suing the hell out these sites and going to war with them. These sites are parasites that destroy their host. Musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, corporate folks who run labels, and ultimately the consumer suffer when music is stolen. Music is very expensive to make and promote. Just because any amateur can record to his computer doesn't mean he can record anything you would want to hear. Want free music? Got Garageband.com or iJigg.com...see how long you last before you run screaming back to music made by professionals...who need to get paid.
- v12ogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Awwwww.... isn't he cute, everybody? lawls.
- theoryofevrythn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1you're sort of forgetting that if we could xerox loaves of bread, that would be a miracle, not a disaster.
  
  one might say the same of a digital music file.
JohnRomano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's just the same old same old.

I like how they paint the RIAA as the boogie man.

Artists and fans just want to share music and the RIAA is stopping them. Total BS. Thank god for itunes or the music industry would be completely dead.
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Get paid to use new DRM-free iTunes alternative

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