Grooveshark no longer supports Chromecast following RIAA claim it infringes artists’ copyright

Grooveshark’s streaming music and radio service no longer supports casting to the big screen via Google’s Chromecast dongle.

While support to cast “content licensed from thousands of artists, labels, distributors and publishers” was only added last month, it seems that the company has fallen foul of Google’s Terms of Service, despite working closely with it to bring the service to the Chromecast platform.

After a jointly approved press release from Grooveshark, we were notified by Google [that] our app was suspended for Terms of Service of compliance. This was a surprise, as we believe we’ve done more than is required to comply as we fostered this compatibility.

Behind the suspension, the company says, was an allegation from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) saying that the service infringes on artists’ copyright. “We found this interesting as Google (YouTube) is also engaged in a lawsuit over the same points,” the spokesperson added.

In a bid to get to the bottom of the issue and try to get support re-instated, Grooveshark said it immediately let the Google Cast Developer Support Team that it would “provide any and all proof of our extensive licensing, and of our commitment to strict compliance with all applicable laws, including DMCA notice & takedown compliance similar to YouTube and others available via Chromecast”.

The company added that it hopes to get the issue resolved quickly so that it can get back to casting tunes soon. We asked Google for comment but had not received a response at the time of writing.

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