GAINESVILLE, FL. (Top40 Charts/ Grooveshark) - Expanding its catalog beyond the hippest and hottest of today's music, the works of Chopin, Mozart and Bach will now be available to the Grooveshark community following a non-exclusive licensing agreement signed today with Naxos, the world's leading classical music label.
Grooveshark is a peer-to-peer (P2P) music sharing network which legally compensates copyright holders. The company aims to revolutionize the music industry by combining the best of P2P file sharing and online music purchase sites into one service at www.grooveshark.com.
'This agreement is proof that Grooveshark is committed to continuing its mission of opening doors to the legal and convenient distribution of all kinds of music to all kinds of music lovers,' said Sam Tarantino, founder and CEO of Grooveshark.
According to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, classical music is currently the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., having increased by 23% among digital music downloads in just one year.
'This remarkable growth can clearly be attributed to digital accessibility,' Tarantino added. 'Now Naxos' listing of more than 5,000 classical titles will join the other catalogs available – like V2 – through our community.'
Naxos is the world's largest independent classical music label, offering more than 5,000 titles for both the curious and the connoisseur. The label has received consistent international acclaim, was named Label of the Year in 2005 by the august classical music magazine Gramaphone, and has been praised by such critics as Elizabeth Blair of NPR as 'a promising force in an otherwise risk-adverse industry.'
'This is a new avenue for distributing classical music worldwide,' said Junko Gardenour, Business Development Manager for Digital Services at Naxos of America, the North American distributor for Naxos. 'Grooveshark, through this agreement, exposes a new generation to classical music. It also gives classical music connoisseurs access to the Naxos catalog in unique digital format.'
Visitors to grooveshark.com can browse songs uploaded by other members and pay to download MP3 files with no digital rights management (DRM) technology. Songs vary in price, but cost no more than 99 cents. Grooveshark will pay appropriate royalties to copyright holders by taking commissions from users' transactions and also compensate users with free music for community participation such as uploading songs, fixing song tags, flagging unwanted files or reviewing music. Members will be rewarded based on their level of contribution to the community.
