Grooveshark is not Free Anymore - subscription start at $4/month

7 points by andreiursan ↗ HN
Today, when I tried to play some music on grooveshark.com I've got the following message:

Screenshot Proof: http://i.imgur.com/XUA7Z.png

<quote>

Our vision for Grooveshark never included charging users for basic access, but rising costs may force us to shut down in your country as we recently did in Germany.

We need your support. In order to stay open, we're asking every user to pay $4/month (USD) for access to Grooveshark.

With your help, we can continue to operate in your country--providing you with millions of songs, playlists, favorites, featured artists, and everything else you love about us.

Thanks for your support and understanding,

</quote>

Edit:

I'm using Grooveshark from Romania. I also added a screenshot of the page as a proof.

9 comments

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What country are you in? I've heard this happening in Ireland.
I'm in Ireland and yes this also started happening here today.
Works in Portugal. The weird thing is that there's not even a mention on their blog... Anyone knows if they even announced it?
I love using Grooveshark and would HATE to see this happen. This would be even worse than when they started playing the loud video ads that would keep cycling.
Still free here in England(UK). I suspect that it won't be the case for long though.
Funny and weird, today Grooveshark works for free. I assume that the subscription thing is a sign that Grooveshark is not doing so well. But the way they did it, without giving proper explanations on their website is at least a sign of bad management.

Or maybe someone cracked their system, but I don't think so...

Word is that Grooveshark could become the next MegaUpload. A thought for anyone looking for a weekend project: An app that could export a Grooveshark playlist (not download the songs, just export artists and titles) would be really popular as I don't believe this functionality exists currently.