The fat lady may be warming up her vocal cords for Grooveshark.com, a music streaming Web site founded by two former UF students.
Music industry giant EMI is suing the Gainesville-based company Escape Media for copyright infringement on its Grooveshark Web site. Grooveshark was founded by UF students Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino in 2006, and the site officially launched in the summer of 2007 as a peer-to-peer music sharing site.
The Web site/s slogan is "Play any song in the world, for free!" and it now allows users to search for songs, add them to a playlist and have further listening automatically suggested based on past choices.
"Grooveshark/s main objective is to provide instant listening of music to anyone in the world, but at the same time compensate those who create the music," said Ben Westermann-Clark, spokesman for Grooveshark. "Obviously this is a pretty hefty undertaking, as there are literally tens of thousands of music labels out there."
Grooveshark already has licensing deals with labels like V2 and Nettwerk, which has signed Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies.
The Web site had been negotiating a similar licensing agreement with EMI for more than a year before the company sued.
"As a company, it sounds really cheesy, but we/re completely committed to helping artists, labels and fans connect with each other in a way that feels inevitable online," Westermann-Clark said. "We look forward to continuing to work with EMI and coming to a resolution that works out well for both of us."
Patrick Pagano of UF/s Digital World/s Institute said both EMI and Grooveshark have valid points.
"I almost see it from both sides because I/m a musician and a producer as well as an educator. If someone steals a piece of music from me, I/m going to be mad," Pagano said.
On that point, Pagano feels Grooveshark may have crossed some lines.
"I think any business has the right to exist, but if they infringe upon the copyrights of other organizations, then no," Pagano said.
But Pagano also believes American public has little sympathy for companies such as EMI at this point.
"They keep changing the format of music and wanting you to buy it again," he said. "The big conglomerates are selling all this new stuff and then turning around and acting shocked that people are sharing it."
The companies will probably settle out of court for a large fine, Pagano said.
However, he said that it is too soon to tell whether it will be a slap on the wrist or whether it will put the company out of business.
"You have a big company. You have a little company. …Grooveshark has‡ actually done something inappropriate, and …EMI is‡ going to make them pay," Pagano said.
Westermann-Clark agrees the lawsuit could be dangerous to the companies existence.
"Basically, we want to give all content owners the best possible deal we can without completely bankrupting Grooveshark in the process," he said.
