Facebook: We Removed Grooveshark App

GGrooveshark, the online music streaming service, seems to have been removed from social networking site Facebook.

According to Digital Music News, Facebook has since confirmed that Grooveshark was intentionally banned as a result of infringement issues.

The news comes after a week of speculation regarding the issue, with commentators noting Grooveshark’s one week absence from the social media giant’s website.

Although it remains possible to like Grooveshark with a valid Facebook account, the options of sharing music data and logging into Facebook via the the Grooveshark website are not.

Facebook’s on-the-record acknowledgement of disabling the Grooveshark application comes one week after a Grooveshark blog post, which attempted to explain the situation as “in error”, informed readers that Grooveshark is “in communication with Facebook to try to understand exactly what’s going on, so we hope to see a resolution to these problems soon.”

According to Alexa, the Web Information Company, Groovshark.com’s estimated percentage of global internet users who visit grooveshark.com has decreased by 17.6% over the past three months.

However, the website has experienced a decrease of 8% in the past 7 days – ever since Facebook revoked Grooveshark’s app status. Since yesterday,

Grooveshark’s website has seen a decrease of 11% in the estimated percentage of global internet users who visit the Groovshark website.

Although the 3-month trend has been downward, concerns are being raised regarding the effect of Facebook’s action on Grooveshark.

Some sources have attributed Facebook’s policy as but a business policy, as Spotify, Facebook’s music streaming service of choice, arguably
stands to gain from Grooveshark’s absence.

However, Grooveshark has been, as recently as January, the subject of several lawsuits filed by the Big Four Record Labels – EMI (who allege Grooveshark has not paid royalties), Warner Music Group, Sony Music, and UMG (all three of whom allege copyright infringement).

Samuel Agini is the Editor of Andrew Apanov’s Dotted Music.