Although still in beta, it works kinda like iTunes. Find a song you want, pay $0.99, download your song. But there is some crazy twist. Evidently, it works on a P2P system, using MP3 tags to group and associate songs together. Then, having all the information on the song, they can distribute the correct portion of that $0.99 to the copyright owner, but if someone buys a song located on your machine(meaning they actually download the song from a library you uploaded), you get a share too.
Honestly, I don't see how this can really work. But we'll assume it can.
But my first question was, how would this work for people not signed with labels. People like Skysaw do pretty much online distribution only, and don't have labels(I'm not sure Skysaw has no label, but just an example). So how do they handle that? They shot me back in email in about two hours after sending a message on the contact form.
Hi Danial,
First off, thanks for your feedback! We really value your input, and
your question is a good one. Keep 'em coming!
In short: yes. Our goal is to make the music of any willing party
available to as many people around the world as possible, and certainly
believe in the power an unrepresented artist can have. Any interested
artist goes through the exact same process as a label--big or small--to
get their content on Grooveshark. First, head on over to
https://beta.grooveshark.com/label_agreement.php and check out the
terms, fill out their own information as the "Label Name", and get
directed from there. Basically, as long as they send us the metadata of
their music (basically a spreadsheet with album/song/artist
information), and a computer hosting their own songs, their music is up
on Grooveshark.
There is no limit to the number of songs they can sell, and they will be
privy to our "label" part of Grooveshark that allows them to monitor
transactions and keep track of all the purchasing and statistical
information related to their content.
I hope I've answered your question satisfactorily. If not, or if you
have any further questions, comments, suggestions, requests, bugs,
features, or anything else on your mind, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.
First off, thanks for your feedback! We really value your input, and
your question is a good one. Keep 'em coming!
In short: yes. Our goal is to make the music of any willing party
available to as many people around the world as possible, and certainly
believe in the power an unrepresented artist can have. Any interested
artist goes through the exact same process as a label--big or small--to
get their content on Grooveshark. First, head on over to
https://beta.grooveshark.com/label_agreement.php and check out the
terms, fill out their own information as the "Label Name", and get
directed from there. Basically, as long as they send us the metadata of
their music (basically a spreadsheet with album/song/artist
information), and a computer hosting their own songs, their music is up
on Grooveshark.
There is no limit to the number of songs they can sell, and they will be
privy to our "label" part of Grooveshark that allows them to monitor
transactions and keep track of all the purchasing and statistical
information related to their content.
I hope I've answered your question satisfactorily. If not, or if you
have any further questions, comments, suggestions, requests, bugs,
features, or anything else on your mind, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.
So, using them, you might be able to bring your music to a new audience, for pretty much nothing.
If you want to sign up, even just to look the music they have, when signing up, use "cnet podcast" as who referred you.
Oh yeah, of course, all the music is %100 DRM free, mostly just standard MP3s.
Are you still with them? What was your experience?