Grooveshark is relaunching as a social music network. Freemium music service Grooveshark revamped its site late Thursday with one of its most ambitions updates since the service launched close to six years ago.
The update integrates social networking features throughout the site, as well as some design changes aimed at simplifying the site and emphasizing music discovery. Grooveshark Creative Director John Ashenden and the company’s SVP of external affairs Paul Geller told me during a phone briefing that the revamp is just as much about building a solid base for some big future changes. Grooveshark’s most recent iteration looked much like a cloud-based version of iTunes with a few social aspects added here and there. The relaunch puts social front and center by emphasizing community features and Facebook-like activity streams. Grooveshark Adds Channel for Emerging Artists. Are you an on-the-cusp band hoping to get in on that music subscription craze?
Well, Grooveshark has just launched a radio channel called “Breakthrough Radio," packed with tunes courtesy of Indaba Music. Indaba, a music creation/collaboration platform, is open to any band with the capital to join. The service already has 600,000 registered users, and now Grooveshark is tapping into those indie bands to provide entertainment for its 30 million monthly unique visitors. Indaba members need only to submit music via the site to be considered for inclusion in Breakthrough Radio.