I am wandering about Grooveshark this week, and there is much to enjoy. Here are some broadcast channels well worth exploring:
Film Scores Too. A very nice continuous stream of movie and personal soundtrack tunes. Very good choices. As I write the room keepers are playing Italian soundtrack composer Ludovico Einaudi’s Una Mattina, a gorgeous piano solo. Next they’re playing Steve Jablonsky’s piece First Transmission . . . great stuff.
Most Beautiful Songs. Not exactly the most original title, but in fact the songs are quite beautiful. Choice selections from Tanita Tikaram, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, and Dire Straits.
Mandarin Pop. The title says it all. Lots of nice Chinese popular music. I’m hearing lots of talented small ensembles with acoustic guitars. Very listenable; very touching. I wish I could tell you more about this room, but alas, I don’t read Mandarin Chinese.
JP ACG Music. A really good Japanese Pop channel. Its proprietor, @gigyaya, has been running the stream for about a year, which is about when these broadcast channels started. They include chat boards and places where you can suggest songs. They’re quite good, music-wise, although I don’t see a whole lot of chatting.
Meanwhile Digital Music News has an update outlining their version of the company’s strange three year legal battle with Grooveshark over “discovery” server access to the identity of an anonymous commenter on DMN who alleged Grooveshark copyright infringing. Apparently the case is now being heard by a California appeals court.
The scuffle is a chapter in a larger battle between Grooveshark and Universal over whether Grooveshark’s use of unlicensed pre-1972 recordings is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbor” protections. These provisions shield music sharing companies against lawsuits as long as they take down infringing content that comes to their attention via complaints or their own monitoring.
Universal seems to have won the latest round of this fight. The DMCA was written as an amendment to the Copyright Act, updated in 1971 to extend copyright protection to sound recordings. But a court noted that that the added legal language stipulated that the licensing status of pre-1972 recordings weren’t covered by federal statutes, just state or common law. Thus Grooveshark’s troubles; what fun.
We cover social music sharing communities every Monday in our Internet DJ feature.
