People have been streaming music over the Internet for years now. The ability to do this is almost a necessity in some minds. However, for just as long as music sharing sites have been around, certain types of music sharing sites have been falling victim to copyright issues and lawsuits. Grooveshark was one of those sites.
What is (or was) Grooveshark?
Grooveshark was started in 2006 by three college students in Florida. It was designed to be an online music-streaming site where individual users could upload their music and share it with others. It basically allowed for users to share their music and organize it into playlists online and then other people could find it and listen. The concept is a brilliant one and is being utilized by other websites such as YouTube, but the execution by Grooveshark left much to be desired by way of legality. Once authorities discovered what was going on, Grooveshark, like Napster, was forced to shut down.
Copyright issues led to Grooveshark’s demise
Grooveshark had an excellent idea, but it fell short when dealing with copyright laws. It was not very keen on making sure it followed copyright laws and this angered some of the major record labels. Also, Apple and Facebook were concerned even in the beginning about Grooveshark’s likelihood of allowing piracy. Because of this, the app was not offered in either of their app stores.
Grooveshark failed to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Basically the act requires that if you are a service providing digital audio transmissions, then you are required to have licenses directly from recording agencies. It was Grooveshark’s failure to obtain these licenses that led to a lawsuit against them by three different agencies: Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group. The lawsuit contended that Grooveshark was liable for 736 million dollars in copyright infringement for around 5000 songs. They quickly reached a settlement and the website officially shut down on April 30, 2015.
Alternatives to Grooveshark
You are not likely to find a service exactly like Grooveshark—and rightfully so as they provided largely illegal services. However, there is other music sharing applications out there that are worth a try. The following are just a few of the alternatives:
Soundcloud
Soundcloud is one of the best music streaming sites and offers a multitude of options for your online listening pleasure. One of the neat things about Soundcloud is that not only can well-known artists upload their work but more obscure and starting out artists can do the same. Along with uploading tunes, users can also listen to songs online, create playlists, and do a whole lot of other things.
With the basic plan, users are limited to 180 minutes of audio track uploading. With the premium plan, there are no limits.
Soundcloud Go, which is the premium plan, offers over 125 million songs and allows for much better previews. Instead of only getting a few seconds, you are allowed to listen to the entire song as a preview. You can also listen offline, and there are no ads.
Key Features: Embeddable widgets for your Android phone, timed comments on tracks, unlimited streaming
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android and Web-based
Disadvantages: You can’t verify if uploaders are the actual artists or not. Also, you can record on the spot, but there is no way to edit. The other downside is that the basic plan offers very little. If you want to take full advantage of the application, you have to upgrade to Soundcloud Go, and there is a fee for that.
Price: Free for the basic plan, Soundcloud Go is $9.99 per month
For more information, you can visit their website:
https://soundcloud.com/
Last.fm
Another basic music streaming service is called Last.fm. It allows for you to do much of the same thing of other streaming services including uploading your own music, creating categorized playlists, and sharing music with people and places nearby.
One of the greatest benefits of Last.fm is what it calls “scrobbling.” Through the company AudioScrobbler, you can keep track of all of the music you have been listening to in all of your applications and do this all in one place. This allows for Last.fm to give you music recommendations, and you can also share what you’re listening to via Facebook.
Last.fm also allows for ad removal, but that requires a subscription.
Key Features: Track logging (scrobbling), music recommendations, sharing via Facebook
Supported Platforms: Windows, Web-based Mac, iOS and Android
Disadvantages: The main disadvantage is that this service requires a fee for ad removal. The fee is minimal, though, so is not much of an issue.
Price: Free for basic, $3.00 per month for subscription
If you would like more information, please see their website:
http://www.last.fm/
Deezer
Deezer appears to very closely resemble Grooveshark in terms of what it offers. It has a very large music repertoire with over 35 million tracks. It also appears to be highly popular with an estimated 6 million subscribers. Deezer may, indeed, be one of the best services of its kind on the web.
Deezer offers you the ability to take your entire music library wherever you go. You can also create playlists, import your favorite music files, and listen even when you are not connected to the web. Deezer allows you to customize your music selection as well. Simply tell them what you like and don’t like, and they will give you recommendations. One unique option Deezer has is that it will show you the lyrics to songs as they play.
Key Features: Import music files, Create playlists, unlimited online and offline listening, music recommendations, lyrics on display while the song is playing
Supported Platforms: Android, Web-based, iPhone, Windows Phone
Disadvantages: There are two main disadvantages to Deezer. First of all, access to a lot of the best parts of the service requires a subscription. Secondly, Deezer is only available in selected cities at this time.
Price: Free for the basic plan, $9.99 per month for subscription
For more information, check out the website:
http://www.deezer.com/
Spotify
Spotify is another of the pretty widely-used music streaming services around. You can find pretty much any song or artist you are looking for on spotify. Spotify also acts sort of like a social networking site in that you can share playlists with your friends and family. And you can obviously peruse the playlists your friends and family have made. Spotify is ad-based for regular users, but it seems they have lessened their ads in recent years. It also offers offline listening and is available in most areas.
Key Features: Playlists, offline listening, play local files, sharing playlists between friends, extensive music collection
Supported Platforms: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Phone
Disadvantages: Some users have reported that the Windows app is fairly slow. Also, the basic plan is very limited, and the sound quality leaves much to be desired.
Price: Free for basic plan, $9.99 per month for subscription
You can find more information at:
https://www.spotify.com/us/
Pandora
Pandora is another fairly widely-used music streaming application. Probably the most significant thing you can do on Pandora is to create customized playlists based off of genre and/or artist. You can do this by browsing their online network or by simply typing in the name of an artist or song. Pandora also asks for you to rate songs and then makes recommendations based off of your ratings. It also features daily top songs and allows for you to share your discoveries with others.
Key Features: Music recommendations based off of your likes and dislikes, personalized playlists
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android
Disadvantages: If you want to listen to a particular song, you have to create a new playlist. In other words, Pandora creates your playlists for you. The other disadvantage is that support is only available in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Price: Free for the basic plan, $4.99 per month for subscription
Their website is located at:
http://www.pandora.com/
Rdio
Rdio is another awesome music streaming administration that offers Free and paid alternatives. You can tune into your own radio station or pick the one that would suit your inclination. Rdio permits users to make and share playlists, Stream or download tunes and whole collections and get proposals in view of individual music decision.
Rdio likewise underpins offline music utilization and permits adjusting with a Roku or Chromecast. Premium arrangements permit evacuation of promotions and upgraded nature of audio streams.
Key Features: Artist pages, shrewd sharing, Playlists, top picks, CarPlay and Google Chromecast support, and so forth.
Upheld Platforms: Windows, Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
Valuing: Free, Rdio Select ($3.99/month) and Rdio Unlimited ($9.99/month).
8tracks
8tracks is a music streaming service that focuses primarily on playlists. It allows for you to create playlists with a maximum of eight songs, and then you can add titles, art, and keywords so that other users can search your playlists. You can also access your playlists via YouTube and Soundcloud (of course this depends on licensing for any individual songs).
Key Features: Create playlists of eight songs each, searchable playlists, access playlists via YouTube and Soundcloud
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android, Xbox, Blackberry, Mac OS X, Windows 8, Mobile web UI, etc.
Disadvantages: The biggest disadvantages with this streaming application are that you can only skip two songs within a playlist, and you can only play playlists twice within an eight-hour period.
Price: Free for basic plan, $25.00 per six months for subscription
Please visit their website for more information:
http://8tracks.com/
Streamus
Streamus is fundamentally a Google Chrome expansion that transforms YouTube into a music streaming administration right from your browser. This tool has been gotten decidedly by the group at Reddit. You can make YouTube melodies and playlists into a music streaming system utilizing this Chrome expansion. You can dispose of bookmarking your main tunes on your browser and rather use this expansion to construct a playlist and sync crosswise over gadgets.
Radio mode permits disclosure of new tunes that you would appreciate taking into account your music tastes. Offer URL of playlists with your companions utilizing this browser augmentation.
Key Features: Playlists, Tab-free music, find new tunes, Share tracks with companions.
Bolstered Platforms: Google Chrome Extension.
Evaluating: Free
Vibe Cloud
Vibe Cloud offers a lot of the things other music streaming applications offer. You can create playlists and collections of playlists. You can also search music and upload and download music. It works with all iPhone media controllers, and because it is an iTunes application, you can listen to songs offline. It plays all music files stored on Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Mega.
The other thing to keep in mind is that it offers an HTML5 player, which enables you to listen to your music on your mobile device or through your web browser.
Key Features: HTML5 based player, create playlists and collections of playlists, download songs to mobile device, plays music files stored on Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Mega
Supported Platforms: Web-based player
Disadvantages: Some users have complained that the application freezes when you skip a song. Also, some files show up as unknown artists, making it difficult to locate them.
Price: Free
For more information, please feel free to visit their website:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vibe-cloud-music-player-for/id877920397?mt=8
Audiosplitter
Audiosplitter is another application for music streaming and was actually designed to help you get your music from Grooveshark back and live for you to listen. It offers personalized recommendations based off of your likes and dislikes and will help you share your favorite music through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. You can also see what your friends and family are listening to through the share option.
Audiosplitter also offers the option to “split” your favorite music from places such as YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc. and save it to your Audiosplitter collection. And you can add your favorite blogs, websites, etc. to your Audiosplitter account.
Key Features: Backup of music from Grooveshark, “split” music from YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc., share music between friends and family, add your favorite blogs, websites, etc. to your Audiosplitter account
Supported Platforms: Web-based, iOS
Disadvantages: The biggest disadvantage with this music streaming app seems to be the over-complicated, not user-friendly website.
Price: Free
For more information, you can check out their website:
https://audiosplitter.fm/
Google Play Music
Google Play Music is a music-streaming program that offers a ton of features. With this application, you can upload up to 50000 of your songs and subscribe and listen to podcasts. You can also listen on any of your devices.
With a monthly subscription, you gain access to over 35 million songs that are not only easily searchable but are also completely on-demand. This plan also offers an ad-free experience, and you can listen on any of your devices at any time, whether you are connected to the web or not.
Key Features: Upload 50000 of your own songs, listen on all devices, subscription offers access to over 35 million songs on-demand, ad-free experience, and listening offline
Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, and the web
Disadvantages: Most of the options offered are for paid subscriptions. Google Play Music doesn’t offer much with the free plan.
Price: Free for the basic plan, $9.99 per month for subscription
If you would like more information, you can go to their website:
https://play.google.com/music/listen
As you can see, there are lots of alternatives for music lovers to turn to since Grooveshark disintegrated. Go out there and check some of them out! Happy listening!
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