It’s been a long time coming, but EMI is now withdrawing support from that dusty old music site Grooveshark. That means Grooveshark is completely abandoned by all four major record labels, leaving it pretty much dead in the water.
To make matters worse, all four labels are also suing the company. In a statement, Grooveshark explained:
“Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI’s currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI’s pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws. To date, Grooveshark has paid over $US2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates.”
Regardless of how the situation came about, it leaves Grooveshark in a situation where it has to remove EMI’s original recordings from its databases. Without any support from a major record label, a music streaming site can only last so long. Nice knowing you, Grooveshark. [CNET via The Verge]
Image: Joi/Flickr