Wise Startup Blog » Grooveshark

Veoh, YouTube, and Many Other Sites One Step Closer To Becoming 100% Legal

andrew — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:46:19 +0000

From a recent ruling by a case between Universal Music Group and Veoh, the judge ruled that Veoh is a legal entity as long as it complies with the DMCA.

The safe harbor of the DMCA states that Web services are not liable for copyright infringement if the content is stored “at the direction of a user.” UMG tried to argue that Veoh should not be covered by the safe harbor because it did a bunch of things with the music and video content after it was stored on its servers, including converting it into Flash, breaking it up into chunks for peer-to-peer distribution, and allowing other users to stream it or download it.

The judge, A Howartd Matz, didn’t buy the argument. He found Veoh’s position to be “more persuasive,” noting that user’s must agree to Veoh’s Terms of Service before uploading a video, and that the terms of service clearly prohibit uploading copyrighted material. In other words, the initial act of uploading is considered to be user-directed storage under the DMCA, and whatever Veoh does to process the video after that cannot be used to get around the letter of the law.

This ruling is a godsend to those startups on the edge of legality, and as long as you comply with the DMCA, you are legal. That is, until another court ruling comes along, but since we’re ruled by a series of prior court cases, this should be more ammunition for those sites looking to deliver new, innovative content for users.

Web Development or Design Work in Gainesville, Florida? Escape Media Group Can Help

andrew — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:23:43 +0000

Escape Media Group is the parent company of Grooveshark, and is a boutique web development firm located in Gainesville, FL.

We have worked on Enterprise Internet applications, and specialize in design and deployment of e-commerce sites, social networking sites, and pretty much any web presence a business is looking to establish.

As a company, we got together after attending the University of Florida in Gainesville. We had our sights set on developing a music platform that would put all of the world’s music online, for everyone to enjoy, and with Grooveshark Lite we launched that project.

Web Design and Development in Gainesville

Now, as Grooveshark is fully autonomous, we are setting our sites on new development projects. We are available for sub-contracting work and are taking on our own original projects.

Our range of services include PHP, Python, Perl, Flash, ActionScript, Flex, JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery, MySQL, and XHTML/CSS. Some of the projects we’ve completed for Grooveshark include:

http://widgets.grooveshark.com/
http://listen.grooveshark.com/
http://grooveshark.com/
http://tinysong.com/

Please take a look at our full services offering in this pdf:

Escape Media Group Web Development in Gainesville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville Florida

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Technology Internet gainesville web deve gainesville web desi

Michelle Obama in Downtown Gainesville: Pictures

andrew — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:07:06 +0000

So the event is about to start, and there are a ton of people in downtown Gainesville. It almost feels like a rock concert.

I can see why people travel across the country for this.

The streets are starting to get packed, and Michelle should be here around 3. Enjoy the pics.

Watch Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, and Last.fm on Your Apple TV with Boxee

andrew — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:40:26 +0000

I may be purchasing an Apple TV. I’ve been looking for a way to watch Hulu on my PC without having to connect a DVI port to my Macbook Pro. Boxee looks to be just what I was looking for.

It’s made to be watched using your TV, using just the Apple remote. You can listen to music from Last.fm (no Grooveshark support??), view lyrics, and check out photos from Flickr.

The installation is also quite simple. You load up the contents of the operating system onto a USB drive, plug it into the box of an Apple TV, and it will load all on its own.

Watch Hulu on Your Apple TV

I don’t actually have the software in hand, currently they’re in private Alpha, but I’ve sent an email to their co-founder Avner, and hopefully will hear back soon.

I currently own a Tivo Series3 HD, but lately I’ve been having trouble finding good TV to watch, so this would be my perfect solution, and without the monthly fee of a Roku box, Apple TV+Hulu is ideal.

What do you guys think? Do you own an Apple TV? Are you happy with it? Are you interested in trying out Boxee as well?

Michelle Obama Speaking on the Grooveshark Patio in Gainesville, FL

andrew — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:15:16 +0000

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an exciting day. Michelle Obama will be speaking tomorrow at 3pm EDT. She’s going to be speaking right outside our patio, and it’d be exciting even to see John McCain.

There is quite a production in setting up a First-Lady Presidential stage. The street was blocked off from 9am this morning, and the production crew has been at it all day long.

Our building managers have sent us numerous emails explaining the procedure tomorrow, and where to park, how many guests we can invite, etc.

We’re actually limited to 1 guest per person, so let me know if you want to be on the VIP list.

Michelle Obama at the Hippodrone in Gainesville

I’ll be sure to post pictures tomorrow after the event, and let you guys know what she says..honestly I don’t really care what she says, it’ll be exciting either way.

We’re also planning on hanging the Grooveshark banner from the balcony, I’ll let you know how that plays out.

Breaking: Grooveshark Launches Widgets and New Social Features for Grooveshark Lite

andrew — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:34:09 +0000

Well, the day has finally come, Grooveshark has released their widget platform, essentially creating the best place to make and share music on the web.

I’ve already embedded a widget on my blog –> to the right. Like it? I did a quick customization in the widget process matching the colors to my blog.

The site is: http://widgets.grooveshark.com/

Below is the widget creation process, pretty easy if you ask me:

Share Your Playlists

Select Your Colors

Choose Your Songs

Put it On Your Blog/MySpace/Etc

Grooveshark Goes Down For Maintenance, Cute Panda In Its Place

andrew — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:41:12 +0000

Looks like there are some changes abrew at Grooveshark, what o’ what could they be up to?


Here's the quote from the page:

To those of you who were redirected here, we apologize.
In an attempt to befriend Asian investors and increase office morale, we here at Grooveshark established some connections with the Chinese black market and imported our very own black-and-white Giant Panda (hereby known as "Pickles"). Unfortunately, due to circumstances no one could have foreseen, Pickles became agitated at the fluorescent lights and near-constant belly rubs and began clawing at our computers.
Pickles is currently thrashing about in the server room, causing the technical difficulties and temporary outage you just experienced. As soon as our interns return from Pier 1 with synthetic bamboo, a picnic basket and an oversized net, we will be able to return the servers back to normal and, if we can, rescue the coder that Pickles has taken as a prize.

Thank you for your patience.

ReverbNation Partners With SongVest To Give Music Fans An Opportunity to Invest in 250,000 Artists

andrew — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:51:15 +0000

ReverbNation, who recently closed a $3 million funding round has had a wave of announcements recently. The most recent partnership with SongVest gives them yet another reason for independent artists to work on their platform.

ReverbNation currently has an artist roster of 250,000, and by working with SongVest, fans are given an opportunity to invest in an up and coming artist.

“Imagine buying in on tracks from the next Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance before they hit the big time,” said David Prohaska, cofounder and CMO of SongVest.

A Suite of Tools for Artists

Right now artists can upload their content to ReverbNation, distribute it via their system (for $35) $5 cheaper than TuneCore, and now receiving investment via partners like SongVest.

They are looking to become the one-stop-shop for artists, as it makes sense for artists to use the same site for distribution as they do for promotion, and it’s only a matter of time until that promotions-package gets stepped up.

ReverbNation has not yet stepped foot in creating a means for artists to do paid-promotion, on platforms like Last.fm and Grooveshark, however, I think that would be the next natural step for them.

I imagine we’ll see this as the next wave of announcements from ReverbNation and finding new ways for artists to profit aside from iTunes commercials.

Entourage Episode 2: Unlike a Version Closing Song, Listen to Pheonix – If I Ever Feel Better

andrew — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:46:05 +0000

After watching this past week’s episode of Entourage, the closing credits had an amazing song, Pheonix – If I Ever Feel Better.

Thanks to the amazing Shazam app on iTunes, I was able to easily grab it and then grab the link from Grooveshark.

Think Apple's Genius Feature is Just OK? Here's a REAL Genius Moment

andrew — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:30:11 +0000

So you think the latest Apple release is pretty neat, eh? But you probably don’t like the fact that it only includes music from your current library, and unless we’re pilfering millions of songs, it probably limits the ability for the Geniuses to do their work.

All the Music You Could Ever Want

Online music sites have the solution: they have pretty much every song out there, and most sites give you the listening experience for free, or very little cost.

Grooveshark, in particular is amazing if you haven’t yet been exposed. The library is built from user generated content from across the globe, giving it a catalog that is essentially, limitless. Searching, navigating and playing is music is as easy as navigating an iPod.

Autoplay is Genius!

The true genius in Grooveshark lies in the Autoplay feature, which was Genius before it was an Apple-feature.

You put the songs into your playlist (queue) of your choosing, hit Autoplay, and you will receive new music inserted into your queue, based on the similarities of the songs currently residing in your queue.

You can + (smile) – (frown) and <3 (heart) songs based on how good the recommendations are. The more you contribute to the system, the better it gets, and the better the Autoplay session is.

iTunes + Grooveshark = Heaven?

Okay, so if we can figure out how to mashup Grooveshark into iTunes it would be the ultimate slice of heaven, perhaps via a plugin that lets you insert songs into your playlists for any tracks you’re missing?

Ideas are a plenty, so let us know your thoughts on the perfect music mashup.