Grooveshark Shuts Down

Published Apr 30, 2015

Before streaming services were all the rage, Grooveshark was a controversial early example of the trend. Now, the company has called it quits and shut for good.The company faced lawsuits over the years for offering unlicensed material. This included a $17 billion lawsuit from a coalition of major labels in 2011. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that Grooveshark had wilfully violated the copyright on thousands of songs, and it was potentially facing hundreds of millions of dollars of damages. (Evidently that "tip jar" idea wasn't good enough.)The owners of service announced its closure with a letter on groovshark.com . In the missive, they admitted that they were in the wrong and agreed to hand over full ownership of the service and its intellectual property. The confessed to sharing music without securing licenses and apologized "without reservation."This letter directs fans to other, legal streaming services. Read it below.