Recent Press Coverage
Grooveshark Adds Veteran Music Industry Executive Vincent S. Castellucci And Grammy Award Winner Jason Miles To Advisory Board
Grooveshark announced that it has contracted with two music industry veterans, Vincent S. Castellucci and Jason Miles, to serve as mentors and as active members of their advisory board.
Castellucci's experience includes executive positions with Harry Fox Agency, Castel Management, Inc., and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, as well as his own consulting firm. Miles, a respected jazz musician, has produced more than 30 CDs for such noted artists as George Benson, Anita Baker and David Sanborn, among others. He won a Grammy in 2000 for producing "She Walks This Earth" by Sting, which won Best Male Pop Vocal. He has been nominated for an Emmy and four additional Grammys, most recently in 2004 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his production of the album "Chasing Shadows" by Herb Albert.
Grooveshark Private Beta Sneak Peek
Grooveshark is a peer-to-peer music sharing site, currently still in private beta, but we got a sneak peek today so we’ll share it with you. Grooveshark has created a community similar in sharing capabilities to the original Napster, and BitTorrent. But Grooveshark’s peer network is also commerce driven, and supports artist compensation. Musicians can distribute their music directly to their audience, retain autonomy and earn revenue.
Legal file-sharing program makes limited debut
A program developed by University of Florida students to legally share files for a fee went live Monday in a limited test.
After six months in development, Escape Media Group launched its Grooveshark technology free to the first 50 users to sign up at www.grooveshark.com.
Sam Tarantino, 20, founder and CEO of Escape Media, said the "alpha" test is being done to work out the kinks before gradually increasing usership and building up to a full launch. He said 3,000 people have signed up for a mailing list.
Grooveshark Press Kit Now Available
Escape Media Group, Inc. has completed the Grooveshark press kit, which is now available for download. If you are interested in a printed copy, please contact James Davis at (386) 697-3743.
download press kit (5.3MB, Compressed Adobe PDF) »
Grooveshark Startup Plans to Pay Music Pirates
The people behind Grooveshark, the groundbreaking new P2P music download service, answer the tough questions like what benefits users will get from contributing, what content they can contribute, and what the they think of the RIAA and the IFPI.
Last week I wrote an article describing the upcoming start of a revolutionary new P2P music downloading service called Grooveshark.
What makes the new service so revolutionary is that it will apparently compensate BOTH copyright holders as well as participating members of the Grooveshark community.
Grooveshark To Offer Legal DRM-free MP3s
Grooveshark, a new music service set to launch fairly soon, claims it will offer DRM-free music over peer-to-peer networks. While there's nothing publicly available at the moment, judging by the two-page website, Grooveshark aims to be Last.fm meets iTunes.
For the iTunes component of that equation, Grooveshark is promising DRM-free MP3 downloads at under 99 cents a song.
Grooveshark Announces Pay-2-Peer
What happens when P2P meets Pay-To-Play? Grooveshark, apparently. The just announced service will combine P2P distribution and Web 2.0 style crowdsourcing .
Grooveshark combines the best of P2P file sharing and online music purchase sites into one service at www.grooveshark.com. Visitors can browse songs uploaded by other members and pay to download MP3 files with no digital rights management (DRM) technology. Songs vary in price, but cost no more than 99 cents. Grooveshark will pay appropriate royalties to copyright holders by taking commissions from users' transactions and also compensate users with free music for community participation such as uploading songs, fixing song tags, flagging unwanted files or reviewing music. Members will be rewarded based on their level of contribution to the community.
It remains to be seen how serious of a proposition GrooveShark will be. The selection will no doubt be limited by their decision to eschew DRM, but the concept itself is pretty sharp. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on Grooveshark as they work to launch their new baby.
Escape Media Group Introduces Grooveshark - the First Legal Peer-to-Peer Online Music Brokerage
GAINESVILLE, Fla., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Escape Media Group, LLC today announced Grooveshark, a new peer-to-peer (P2P) music-sharing community that will compensate both copyright holders and members who participate in the community.
According to the press release, Grooveshark will function much like popular P2P file exchanges. Members will be able to offer their media library for sale through Grooveshark and discover and share new music with other members (only MP3 or OGG files without DRM). The difference: Grooveshark will broker music transactions by charging up to 99 cents for each song downloaded and use those proceeds to pay royalties to the copyright holders and reward members for community participation.
"Our bottom line is value. By bringing the convenience and selection of a peer-to-peer network together with the recommendation power of a community of friends -- all the while removing DRM -- we can generate revenue to compensate both copyright holders and users," said Sam Tarantino, 20-year-old founder and CEO of Escape Media Group, the parent company of Grooveshark.
Program Tests File-Sharing Potential
For those whose music-downloading bills are almost as high as their rent payments, a group of UF students and alumni may have an idea for some relief.
"We are basically building an online music-sharing community where users get credit for sharing their music," said Samuel Tarantino, an economics sophomore at UF and the founder and chief executive officer of Escape Media Group.
Tarantino's company created Grooveshark, a legal peer-to-peer program whose users will get credit for the music they share. Grooveshark is expected to be ready by Fall 2007.
"We go one step beyond just being a music store," said Andres Barreto, chief operations officer and a decision information sciences sophomore.
What makes Grooveshark different from other music-downloading applications is that its users will acquire music legally. Record labels and artists will be compensated each time their music is downloaded, eliminating the legal risks of copyright infringement.
The Sound of Business
We've all been there - tired of the music sharing options that are available, wishing there was an easier and better way to get the music we want. But, did you ever think of creating your own system that would make the whole process of downloading music more reliable and effortless?
That's exactly what UF sophomore and entrepreneur Sam Tarantino decided to do in March 2006. Tarantino, the founder and CEO of Escape Media Group, came up with the idea of creating a social music sharing community in January, and quickly put his ideas into motion. Enrolled in UF Professor William Rossi's Principles of Entrepreneurship course at the time, Tarantino took the knowledge he was gaining in class and applied it to his very own real world example. Along with partners Josh Greenberg and Andres Barreto, both also UF sophomores, Tarantino embarked on his quest to develop a prototype that he himself found useful. "The goal is for this to be a system that works for students, developed by students," he said.