EMI terminates licensing agreement with Grooveshark

EMI Music has terminated its licensing agreement with Grooveshark, while a statement from the music streaming service has called EMI’s rates “unsustainable”.
The move comes after EMI joined the legal assault on Grooveshark in January, becoming the fourth major to sue the company.

CNet reports that EMI told the New York Supreme Court that Grooveshark owes $300,000 plus interest for nonpayment on a promissory note.

A statement from Grooveshark, however, suggested that the decision to part ways came from the music service itself, “Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI’s currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI’s pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws.

“To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates.”

Grooveshark said that the EMI lawsuit filed against it in January was a contract dispute that it expected to resolve. CNet reports that since then Grooveshark failed to make a $100,000 installment of EMI assets leading to the current dispute and the severing of ties.

Source: Music Week