Grooveshark Settles with Merlin's Indies

Music streaming service Grooveshark has settled its dispute with indie music agency Merlin. Grooveshark will pay for both past and future use. The deal, particularly the inclusion of payments for previous use, is a major victory for Merlin who has worked to become the go to source for new media companies licencing indie music.

Merlin members claim a 10% market share of the overall U.S. music market and include labels such as Rough Trade, Warp Records, Yep Roc/Red Eye, Epitaph, Naïve, Tommy Boy, One Little Indian, Kontor New Media, Beggars Group, [PIAS], !K7, Merge, Domino and Koch/E1.

Grooveshark's streaming music service allows users access  without having to download client software. It's limited basic service is free and monetised with visual advertising.  A premium paid subscription enables unlimited streaming of ad-free music.

Said Charles Caldas, Merlin CEO: “This is an important deal for Merlin's members, underlining that Merlin exists both to protect its member labels' content and to help create new legitimate revenue streams. Merlin was established not just to protect its members' rights, but also to make life easier for services who want to deal fairly with the thousands of independent labels that make up our membership. We wish Grooveshark all the best going forward and hope that this will be an important reminder to other music services looking to launch soon."