EMI Drops Suit Against Grooveshark, Licenses Music to Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 13, 2009 - 11:48am.

London - Major record label EMI has dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against free music streaming site Grooveshark, and has instead agreed to license both its recording and publishing catalogs to the site for U.S. use, Wired.com reports. "We think services like Grooveshark offer great music discovery options for fans," Mark Piibe, EMI Music's global head of digital business development, told Wired.com. "In turn, Grooveshark offers a new revenue stream for our artists and will help us learn more about how we can better connect different types of fans with artists."

EMI sued Florida-based Grooveshark back in June for copyright infringement.

Grooveshark said at the time that it has been in licensing talks with EMI for the preceding year.

The company's CEO, Isaac Moredock, would not comment for Wired.com on the terms of its licensing deal with EMI, including whether or not it included equity in the company -- but did say the company is working to secure deals with other labels.

"We are dead set on signing those agreements with the [remaining] labels to start getting copyright holders and creators of that music paid, because at the end of the day, that's kind of what it's all about -- making sure the propagators of this art form are actually getting paid," Moredock told Wired.com.

"We want to effect a legitimate change in the musical landscape, because bands aren't making that much money anymore, and we want to change that."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/shz86 (Wired.com)

http://snipurl.com/shzbz (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.emi.com

http://listen.grooveshark.com/