Grooveshark closes in Germany blaming high operating costs

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published

The streaming site, which is involved in various legal wrangles, had come under pressure from the German music rights organisation

Grooveshark

Grooveshark has closed the German arm of its music streaming business, blaming high operation costs.

German users woke to find a message on the site announcing the closure and suggesting users contact GEMA, the local music rights organisation, if they wanted to help reduce operating costs for companies such as Grooveshark.

Grooveshark is a free, web-based music streaming service, which has over 30 million users with around 10% of those in Germany.

The streaming service is currently involved in a legal dispute with Universal, the record label wanting compensation for tracks it says Grooveshark hasn't paid to license and stream to users.

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Joe Cox
Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).