By: Tim Roberson

    Grooveshark is one of the biggest streaming services on the block. Users can upload their entire music collections into Grooveshark's cloud, or simply downstream the songs from their favorite artists while keeping their private collections just that. 

    Although there has been some controversy surrounding what artists actually get paid for a stream of their music, Grooveshark contends that the entire process is not reliant on a per stream price point. Through analytics and tracking, Grooveshark and other streaming services offer artists a chance to get information out of the deal. Whereas piracy offers absolutely nothing, the streaming services at least provide some return on an artists investment in the form of data.

    Ben Westerman-Clark is the head of Communications and Public Relations for Grooveshark. Play Music City caught up with him to talk about the service and what it provides artists as well as to clear up a few of the above controversial points. 

    According to Westerman-Clark, the analytics and data provided through Grooveshark's tracking services will allow artists to use this data as a tool to streamline tours and target marketing. In this way, artists can more efficiently use the funding available to them, even if the per stream pay out is not exactly putting fuel in the van. 

    If Grooveshark and the other services like it are the solution to piracy, it still leaves the album as little more than a marketing piece. Despite the exorbitant licensing payouts demanded by major and even indie labels,  little to none of that money finds its way back to the artists. As these services try to salvage commercialism out of a pirated business model, the pressure builds on them to show that the artists are being paid substantially for use of their product. However, the truth of the matter is that these services are held ransom by the labels, who are again the culprit in the long history of artists seeing the short end of the stick.

(For more on whats next for the album, The Future, Next Exit )

    Streaming services are making a valiant attempt to provide music to fans at the lowest cost, while at the same time servicing both the record labels and the artists. Seems like they are between a rock and a hard place, with once again the labels coming out on top.

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http://grooveshark.com/