Grooveshark, a music streaming service that began in 2006, has been forced to shut down in a legal agreement with the major music labels. The company admitted that it was not paying licensing fees and agreed to pull the plug.
In a statement posted on its website, the team admitted that it was “wrong.” In addition to ending operations, the company agreed to “wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.”
Grooveshark then recommended that its users go to Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, Beats Music and other successful streaming sites for music. They also pointed users to WhyMusicMatters.com to find sites that have music legally.
According to Reuters, Warner Bros. Records, Sony Music Entertainment and UMG Recordings were among nine labels that filed a lawsuit against Grooveshark’s parent company, Escape Media Group, in 2011. A judge decided last week that Grooveshark was willfully violating copyrights on around 5,000 songs.
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