Grooveshark Goes HTML5 on Mobile to Avoid Ban

Posted 01/13/2012 at 3:38pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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Grooveshark is currently being sued by everyone under the sun for its controversial non-licensed music streaming service. As the legal pressures continued to mount in 2011, Grooveshark’s app was pulled from the iOS App Store, and the Android Market. Rather than go back and forth with Google and Apple, Grooveshark has opted to bypass the app stores with an HTML5 web app.

The new Grooveshark HTML5 site can stream music to any modern mobile device that complies with HTML5 standards. So that means that even non-Jailbroken iOS devices will once again be able to get access to Grooveshark. Android users have been able to sideload the app since it was removed from the store, but this solution is clearly easier. The web app feels almost native, and scales to a variety of screen sizes. 

The recording industry alleges that Grooveshark uploaded illegally ripped music itself to fill out its collection. The company was paying royalties to the industry, but neglected to seek licensing deals beforehand. Grooveshark’s long-term potential is murky, but at least mobile users can listen again.