Question regarding extensive Grooveshark-quoting of a composer's oeuvre

May 21, 2011 10:39 AM

Is it considered kosher to make a post on the blue that relies heavily on Grooveshark songs? Or is that as much a no-no as posts that provide links to torrents and unauthorized downloads? Grooveshark only streams songs, rather than providing people with downloads, so does that make it as OK as YouTube?

I want to make an FPP about Mike Oldfield's music that's not Tubular Bells, because Oldfield is my all-time favorite composer and his non-Tubular Bells work is utterly fantastic. (Also because Oldfield gives some fascinating and sort-of-wonky interviews.) But because a significant amount of his work is too long to fit on YouTube, Grooveshark is the only place where you can find his music online.

In particular, his piece Amarok is exactly 60 minutes long, and very difficult to snippet (it was deliberately composed to be unsnippetable), and I think it's Oldfield's best work, so I'd want to include a link to it. And the only place it's readily available is Grooveshark. So would it be okay to link to that, considering it's just a stream?

I did a search to see if Grooveshark's used a lot on the blue, but only two posts have, and one of those was my own. Neither one led to an in-thread discussion of Groovesharking, so it's been allowed before; still, I'm uncertain about using Grooveshark as a primary web site, so I want to see what other users/the mods think before composing a long, Grooveshark-y post.

posted by Rory Marinich to Etiquette/Policy at 10:39 AM (19 comments total)

I'd figure that to be fine (also Last.fm); Spotify probably wouldn't work because you can't get it in the US.

It's not like you're putting up Sharebee links — Grooveshark still nominally pays people.
posted by klangklangston at 10:44 AM on May 21, 2011

True Story: I once owned a copy of a Truman's Water LP that was housed in an old Tubular Bells cover spray painted with TW's name.

Hey look, they had a new album out last year that I missed. Neat.
posted by item at 10:46 AM on May 21, 2011

I don't know much about Grooveshark, but it's not on my radar as something that's problematic. Same old caveats apply about music-based posts and linking to gigantic things [i.e. an hour long music piece might garner very few listens, so I'd be cautious of making it a post centerpiece, though it's great as supporting material] but that seems like an okay thing to do.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:48 AM on May 21, 2011

My attitude is, if you're putting me in touch with music that is new to my ears (and soul) -- go for it (particularly if it's in such a way that it doesn't put me in immediate contact with an easy download). Cultural connection trumps copyright concerns every time.

As for the non-Tubular Mike Oldfield, I say, double-go for it -- particularly if you're going to focus on the stuff up to (and including) Five Miles Out. That's definitely unexplored territory for many, many people.

Finally, it's not as if it's hard to rip a song from Youtube anyway. GoSong comes to mind, though it is sort of rat's nest of pop-ups and the like. And, of course, with minimum set-up, you can always just record the Youtube audio as it streams.
posted by philip-random at 10:50 AM on May 21, 2011

I went to the two posts you linked to, and all the grooveshark links on those pages seem to get redirected to http://grooveshark.com/#/ which is just a search box. I'm using Safari on OS X with up to date everything, so it's not like I'm an edge case; be aware that your posts will not be accessible to everyone. (Obviously, US-only videos make up a large proportion of mefi links, so this isn't an egregious sin).
posted by nowonmai at 10:54 AM on May 21, 2011

I hope you do but the grooveshark links don't work for me either..
posted by Daddy-O at 11:08 AM on May 21, 2011

Grooveshark is no more legally dubious than YouTube, and they have agreements with many labels including EMI
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:23 AM on May 21, 2011

Hmm, that's weird. So if I make a link like this it won't load? Grooveshark has changed its interface fairly recently, so maybe it's only earlier links that break for you?

philip-random: I haven't listened to Five Miles Out in a year or two, but I was thinking of going back and re-listening. The two "pop-era" Oldfield albums I know best are Discovery and Crises. (Crises made a surprise pop-culture re-entry because Kanye West opened his album with a sample from it, but I like Discovery better for its cheesiness.)
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:24 AM on May 21, 2011

Rory, that link works fine for me.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:27 AM on May 21, 2011

I haven't listened to Five Miles Out in a year or two, but I was thinking of going back and re-listening.

The pop aspect of Five Miles Out is the worst part of it. Actually, only that one song. Family Man, I think? It's just so out of place in the context of the rest of the album, and, having caught the concert for it way back when, the same applied to its inclusion in the live show. Yeah, Five Miles Out (the song) was also released as a single but it at least had something epic going on.

The last Mike Oldfield album I ever bothered with was Crises, which, in spite of a few notable moments (second half of the title track, the single Moonlight Shadow) just didn't feel that essential. But now, come to think of it, I should dig up the second half of that title track sometime. It really did soar ... or so I recall.
posted by philip-random at 12:02 PM on May 21, 2011

Grooveshark doesn't work in my Safari, either. I run ClickToFlash, and I've always assumed that was the problem. It runs fine under Chrome, so I end up booting that up when I see Grooveshark links.
posted by hippybear at 1:23 PM on May 21, 2011

Rory, that didn't work right for me, cuz it took me to a Justin what's his name song, and I KNOW you wouldn't do that to us, would you?
posted by tomswift at 1:24 PM on May 21, 2011

tomswift, I'm actually a fan of the occasional Justin Bieber song. Additionally I'm a sadist.
posted by Rory Marinich at 1:44 PM on May 21, 2011

Rory: That link did work for me. I don't know how it differs from the others that didn't.
posted by nowonmai at 3:26 PM on May 21, 2011

Sweet! It's from the new Grooveshark, links from which will hopefully work on all browsers.

(Six months from now... maybe not. But for now we're gold.)
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:03 PM on May 21, 2011

Rory that worked for me in Spain ...though I wish it hadn't.
posted by adamvasco at 1:43 AM on May 22, 2011

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posted by Drama Penguin at 7:34 PM on June 17, 2011

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posted by Drama Penguin at 7:39 PM on June 17, 2011