Grooveshark = Legal P2P or Napsitunefacepedia

Dan Rua
Florida Venture Blog

October 11, 2007

So I'm sitting here listening to "Don't Cry Out" [ http://beta.grooveshark.com/song/Dont_Cry_Out/872 ] by Shiny Toy Guns [ http://beta.grooveshark.com/artist/Shiny_Toy_Guns/206 ] and it makes me want to buy. I discovered it via Grooveshark's Billboard of the top songs across their network -- and now I just bought with one click.

Now I'm checking out "Forest" [ http://beta.grooveshark.com/song/Forest/288814 ] by System of a Down [ http://beta.grooveshark.com/artist/System%20of%20A%20Down/8473 ]and it reminded me I need to add a few SOAD songs to my collection. I was reminded of SOAD by Grooveshark's Recommendation engine -- and now I just bought with another click.

When I buy these or others, the copyright holders get their cut, the Grooveshark member that contributed the song gets a cut, I pay for a song I like legally and Grooveshark gets their cut and some happy members. I love crowdsourced capitalism done right, everybody wins.

I've been lucky enough to watch Grooveshark [ http://www.grooveshark.com/ ] grow from a logo on a napkin (maybe it was an idea, but the smooth logo wasn't far behind). Sam, Josh, and Andres have grown a smart, talented team and a small army of developers -- in Gainesville's tech scene, Grooveshark exhibits many signs of a cult, in a good way.

I've seen part of this movie before -- when Shawn Fanning [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Fanning ] was programming/sleeping/programming in his uncle's office, Sean Parker [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker ] was hustling money to pay for a second server and a smooth cat wearing headphones became the logo of the Napster [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster ] revolution and RIAA enemy #1. My fund's investment paid for that second server. What happened from there disrupted an industry in the truest sense of the word, and the walls keep coming down [ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/10/and-the-walls-came-tumbling-down-madonna-dumps-record-industry/ ].

That leads us to Grooveshark, the truest implementation so far of Napster's potential to leverage P2P and benefit all participants -- including copyright holders, consumer distributors and music lovers. There are plenty of hurdles ahead but the team is doing a lot of things right. They've gotten great underground coverage [ http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9035/Q&A+With+Grooveshark,+Where+'Everybody+Gets+Paid'+For+Sharing+Music ] and just got a short/sweet TechCrunch review [ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/10/p2p-music-sharing-service-grooveshark-ups-compensation/ ] (at least my rare beta invite to Arrington wasn't wasted).

There remains an argument whether music will ultimately be free. I don't know that answer, but I hope not. I'm a strong believer in personal/intellectual property rights (e.g. the right to expect payment for something I create) and the trend I see toward expecting free worries me. Regardless of how that plays out, Grooveshark is well positioned as a blend of Napster (the original), Wikipedia, Facebook and iTunes. Kudos guys, for a good launch so far. I look forward to the day when every song on the planet, including hits, long-tail, remixes, concert recordings, indies and mashups, is available via Grooveshark and everybody gets paid...