Grooveshark Makes Its Way to the iPhone (Finally!)

[sn0ws]

Music lovers, get excited. Grooveshark has finally arrived for the iPhone–and you don’t have to jailbreak your smartphone, either. While we’ve seen early test versions for the Apple smartphone, it has taken what seems like forever to become official through the iTunes app store. Now you can find all the songs you’ve been struggling to find anywhere else and stream it through your iPhone. The app is free and it comes with a 30-day free trial, and after that you’ll have to sign up for a VIP account to continue using the service.



With all those tunes on tap, you’d think the legal ramifications would pretty much render this app obsolete, but according to CNet:

The app is dated August 5, but Grooveshark began publicizing it on Wednesday, following the company’s legal settlement with Merlin, which handles digital distribution for small labels such as Beggars Group and Rough Trade. Grooveshark has previously settled a lawsuit with EMI, but it still faces one from Universal Music.

Universal Music is a pretty big one, but if it managed to settle with giant EMI perhaps it will fare well with what’s up ahead, too.

So just how does all of this work, exactly? CNet has spoken with Grooveshark in the past, and it turns out that content is user uploaded. After that point, the company gets in touch with the necessary parties in order to get the legal part of streaming the music cleared:

In my past conversations with Grooveshark, the company has claimed that users post all content to the site, after which it tries to work out any necessary licensing deals with content owners. This has never seemed like a legally airtight strategy to me, but the company has managed to survive for several years and release regular updates and improvements, so it’s not like it’s sitting around waiting for the axe to fall. Neither should you–if you have an iPhone and love music, there’s no better way to see the power of a subscription service.

Whatever they’re doing, I’m just glad it’s working. Now you can enjoy most if not all of the songs you could possibly want on-demand on your iPhone.

[Via: CNet]
[Via: Grooveshark Comes to iPhone

Best part is the free thirty day trial of VIP so if you're like me and don't like to download songs illegally but don't feel that you should have to pay a dollar or more per, then this APP is perfect for you/us!
Enjoy!

[cypherpunk]

Guess Apple's finally been forced to cut their anti-competitive bull****.

Still, I'm still not paying until they get a solid set of licensing deals sorted out (by "solid" I mean along the lines of last.fm, not the pathetic swiss cheese of a song library you get with Spotify).

Right now it feels like paying for a primitive filesharing network, with no guarantees about the availability or bitrate of anything.

[sn0ws]

Guess Apple's finally been forced to cut their anti-competitive bull****.

Still, I'm still not paying until they get a solid set of licensing deals sorted out (by "solid" I mean along the lines of last.fm, not the pathetic swiss cheese of a song library you get with Spotify).

Right now it feels like paying for a primitive filesharing network, with no guarantees about the availability or bitrate of anything.

I agree with you on about everything, I just think for 3 dollars a month it's worth the functionality it gives me.

Being summer, I am always traveling for short trips and it's nice to be able to make a playlist with songs other than what I have on my phone or in my library with out having to pay a dollar per with itunes. Just that is worth the $3 but also the option to download and play offline is nice and fills that gaps that Pandora doesn't stream well in, (3G coverage) between the cities I frequent here in Michigan.

[Sarah_Groci]

The app is free and it comes with a 30-day free trial, and after that you’ll have to sign up for a VIP account to continue using the service.

As a workaround you can also use the WiFi2HiFi app and stream the audio of Grooveshark from the computer to the iPhone. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VcaLV89l9s]YouTube - How to stream Grooveshark to the iPhone[/ame]