There's an insight into the working methods of Grooveshark in the comments section of the Digital Music News. My thanks to Rockette for sending in the following post. He writes "The row about Grooveshark rumbles on at
Digital Music News. Most commentators deplore the
company’s lack of ethics, and of course there are the usual dismissive
comments from Brave-New-Worlders claiming that the only future for the
music biz is for all artists to give away their tracks for free.
This recent anonymous post caught my eye:
I work for Grooveshark. Here is some information from the trenches:
We are assigned a predetermined ammount of weekly uploads to the system and get a small extra bonus if we manage to go above that (not easy).The assignments are assumed as direct orders from the top to the bottom, we don’t just volunteer to "enhance" the Grooveshark database.
All search results are monitored and when something is tagged as "not available", it get’s queued up to our lists for upload. You have to visualize the database in two general sections: "known" stuff and "undiscovered/indie/underground". The "known" stuff is taken care internally by uploads. Only for the "undiscovered" stuff are the users involved as explained in some posts above. Practically speaking, there is not much need for users to upload a major label album since we already take care of this on a daily basis.
Are the above legal, or ethical? Of course not. Don’t reply to give me a lecture. I know. But if the labels and their laywers can’t figure out how to stop it, then I don’t feel bad for having a job. It’s tough times.
Why am I disclosing all this? Well, I have been here a while and I don’t like the attitude that the administration has aquired against the artists. They are the enemy. They are the threat. The things that are said internally about them would make you very very angry. Interns are promised getting a foot in the music industry, only to hear these people cursing and bad mouthing the whole industry all day long, to the point where you wonder what would happen if Grooveshark get’s hacked by Anonymous one day and all the emails leak on some torrent or something.
And, to confirm the fears of the members of King Crimson, there is no way in hell you can get your stuff down. They are already tagged since you sent in your first complaint. The administration knows that you can’t afford to sue for infringement.
Judging by the way Grooveshark have conducted themselves in their dealings with Declan Colgan and Robert Fripp, this has the ring of truth. In the old days, the enemy of musicians were what Zappa called "the old cigar-chomping guys"; now it appears there is a new foe, somewhat younger but just as devious and unscrupulous. As Pete Townshend said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
This recent anonymous post caught my eye:
I work for Grooveshark. Here is some information from the trenches:
We are assigned a predetermined ammount of weekly uploads to the system and get a small extra bonus if we manage to go above that (not easy).The assignments are assumed as direct orders from the top to the bottom, we don’t just volunteer to "enhance" the Grooveshark database.
All search results are monitored and when something is tagged as "not available", it get’s queued up to our lists for upload. You have to visualize the database in two general sections: "known" stuff and "undiscovered/indie/underground". The "known" stuff is taken care internally by uploads. Only for the "undiscovered" stuff are the users involved as explained in some posts above. Practically speaking, there is not much need for users to upload a major label album since we already take care of this on a daily basis.
Are the above legal, or ethical? Of course not. Don’t reply to give me a lecture. I know. But if the labels and their laywers can’t figure out how to stop it, then I don’t feel bad for having a job. It’s tough times.
Why am I disclosing all this? Well, I have been here a while and I don’t like the attitude that the administration has aquired against the artists. They are the enemy. They are the threat. The things that are said internally about them would make you very very angry. Interns are promised getting a foot in the music industry, only to hear these people cursing and bad mouthing the whole industry all day long, to the point where you wonder what would happen if Grooveshark get’s hacked by Anonymous one day and all the emails leak on some torrent or something.
And, to confirm the fears of the members of King Crimson, there is no way in hell you can get your stuff down. They are already tagged since you sent in your first complaint. The administration knows that you can’t afford to sue for infringement.
Judging by the way Grooveshark have conducted themselves in their dealings with Declan Colgan and Robert Fripp, this has the ring of truth. In the old days, the enemy of musicians were what Zappa called "the old cigar-chomping guys"; now it appears there is a new foe, somewhat younger but just as devious and unscrupulous. As Pete Townshend said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
