Corporate staff
Today we were shocked to learn that one of our main provider for our ContentUnlimited Audio service, "Grooveshark", has been found guilty of willfully uploading 4,907 recordings for which they didn’t have secured the proper licensing.
Of course, we immediately stopped to include the Grooveshark database in our catalog, until we can understand exactly what the situation is.
How does that impact you, if you are a ContentUnlimited Audio customer:
First, the unlicensed situation concerned only 4907 tracks out of 15 million in the catalog. So most likely, all the tracks that you have been playing in the past using ContentUnlimited were properly licensed.
Second, if you need to work this weekend, do not worry: Though most of our "ContentUnlimited Audio Pro" catalog is now unavailable, the "NetSearch Audio" service is still working, so you can still search and play songs from within VirtualDJ, as usual. Also note that any "cached" content that you have right now on your computer, will still continue to play without any problems.
We are working as fast as we can to understand more about this situation and find a long-term solution to bring back a full and high-quality catalog of properly licensed songs to you.
EDIT:
(this addition was posted on page 4 a few hours later, but for clarity we repost it under the orignal post too)
A few more information and answers to the common questions we're seeing here:
1) This week of ContentUnlimited Audio is free for anyone with an active subscription (meaning, if you just got billed, you will see your next billing happening in 1 month + 1 week instead of 1 month).
If in one week we still don't feel comfortable with the new provider we're setting up, we'll continue to postpone the billings, until everything is clear.
Also, if after one week, when the new catalog is in place, you feel you don't like it and would like to cancel your subscription, we'll refund you the number of days in May that you paid for but couldn't use.
2) To answer some comments: we did know that Grooveshark was being sued many months ago, but got assured by Grooveshark's management that they were reaching an agreement with the labels and that everything was ok. Obviously that was not the case, and we were as shocked as everybody to learn of the outcome today.
We did start to work on an alternative source at this time, but today we are also exploring two other potential partners that we believe would be even better, so we decided to take one week to bring back the best service possible, and avoid any such inconvenience in the future.
3) We are making all these announcements and comments, in an attempt to keep a maximum transparency with our customers.
But the functionality of VirtualDJ and of ContentUnlimited Audio have not really been affected that much.
Within 12 hours of the notification of Grooveshark demise, we released a new version 8 (build 2245) and a new version 7 (v7.4.4), that removed Grooveshark from the catalog and made sure that any search that couldn't find a match in our other smaller catalogs would show results from NetSearch instead.
While the NetSearch results sometimes shows some low quality files among the results, they most of the time will have one or two files that are high enough quality to be played by professionals.
We understand that this is not the ideal situation, and not what people paid for when they subscribed to ContentUnlimited Audio (hence why we stopped charging everyone this week).
But we ask for your comprehension while we put together a new catalog that we feel will be even better than the Grooveshark one.
And in the meantime, we made sure with NetSearch that while it can be a minor inconvenience, it shouldn't have a real impact on your work. (you should still be able to search, find and stream good quality tracks for any requests you get)
Of course, we immediately stopped to include the Grooveshark database in our catalog, until we can understand exactly what the situation is.
How does that impact you, if you are a ContentUnlimited Audio customer:
First, the unlicensed situation concerned only 4907 tracks out of 15 million in the catalog. So most likely, all the tracks that you have been playing in the past using ContentUnlimited were properly licensed.
Second, if you need to work this weekend, do not worry: Though most of our "ContentUnlimited Audio Pro" catalog is now unavailable, the "NetSearch Audio" service is still working, so you can still search and play songs from within VirtualDJ, as usual. Also note that any "cached" content that you have right now on your computer, will still continue to play without any problems.
We are working as fast as we can to understand more about this situation and find a long-term solution to bring back a full and high-quality catalog of properly licensed songs to you.
EDIT:
(this addition was posted on page 4 a few hours later, but for clarity we repost it under the orignal post too)
A few more information and answers to the common questions we're seeing here:
1) This week of ContentUnlimited Audio is free for anyone with an active subscription (meaning, if you just got billed, you will see your next billing happening in 1 month + 1 week instead of 1 month).
If in one week we still don't feel comfortable with the new provider we're setting up, we'll continue to postpone the billings, until everything is clear.
Also, if after one week, when the new catalog is in place, you feel you don't like it and would like to cancel your subscription, we'll refund you the number of days in May that you paid for but couldn't use.
2) To answer some comments: we did know that Grooveshark was being sued many months ago, but got assured by Grooveshark's management that they were reaching an agreement with the labels and that everything was ok. Obviously that was not the case, and we were as shocked as everybody to learn of the outcome today.
We did start to work on an alternative source at this time, but today we are also exploring two other potential partners that we believe would be even better, so we decided to take one week to bring back the best service possible, and avoid any such inconvenience in the future.
3) We are making all these announcements and comments, in an attempt to keep a maximum transparency with our customers.
But the functionality of VirtualDJ and of ContentUnlimited Audio have not really been affected that much.
Within 12 hours of the notification of Grooveshark demise, we released a new version 8 (build 2245) and a new version 7 (v7.4.4), that removed Grooveshark from the catalog and made sure that any search that couldn't find a match in our other smaller catalogs would show results from NetSearch instead.
While the NetSearch results sometimes shows some low quality files among the results, they most of the time will have one or two files that are high enough quality to be played by professionals.
We understand that this is not the ideal situation, and not what people paid for when they subscribed to ContentUnlimited Audio (hence why we stopped charging everyone this week).
But we ask for your comprehension while we put together a new catalog that we feel will be even better than the Grooveshark one.
And in the meantime, we made sure with NetSearch that while it can be a minor inconvenience, it shouldn't have a real impact on your work. (you should still be able to search, find and stream good quality tracks for any requests you get)
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 7:58 am
BigTop Joe
I cannot obtain any "available" songs in unlimited. ALL have "error."
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 8:27 am
SBDJ
Any results you get now will be from netsearch. What version (and build) of VDJ are you using?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 8:29 am
klausmogensen
I don't think the net search works in version 7.4.2. It did work a few days ago
It works ok in version 8
It works ok in version 8
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 8:42 am
gtfreymann
What happens to any content we have saved to the Cache? Will it be unavailable or just stay there until I delete it?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:26 am
jeff309767
Will we stop being charged monthly ? I've just been charged for this month.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:28 am
royvanmeel
gtfreymann wrote :
What happens to any content we have saved to the Cache? Will it be unavailable or just stay there until I delete it?
I quote the first post: "....Also note that any "cached" content that you have right now on your computer, will still continue to play without any problems..."
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:30 am
Corporate staff
gtfreymann wrote :
What happens to any content we have saved to the Cache? Will it be unavailable or just stay there until I delete it?
stay there until you delete it
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:30 am
Corporate staff
jeff309767 wrote :
Will we stop being charged monthly ? I've just been charged for this month.
We will evaluate the situation after the weekend and make an official answer then, but obviously if we don't find a replacement solution quickly, we will stop charging CUAudio customers until we do.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:33 am
djbaum81
What about when the downloaded "cached" content refreshes itself which it does once a month or so? It will have nothing to refresh right?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:40 am
Corporate staff
zellerball wrote :
What about when the downloaded "cached" content refreshes itself which it does once a month or so? It will have nothing to refresh right?
For now, it will refresh just the DRM but keep the song, so it's not a problem.
(once we have the new provider set up, we might have to force a redownload. But we don't know yet at this point)
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:52 am
djbaum81
So when it refreshes the DRM I can still play the song if it was downloaded to cache even if it was pulled from the 5,000 songs on grooveshark that was taken down?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 9:56 am
I have virtual dj7. Net search isn't downloading as well. Will I be able to upgrade to 8 if this continues?
ues.
ues.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:00 am
jimmy@Uplay.nl
have a talk with spotify please.....
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:22 am
kwilsonjr
In Grooveshark's statement, now visible on their website, they claim "we failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service" (emphasis mine). This sounds to me like it is more than just a few tracks as you claim. Is it legal to continue playing tracks that are cached since they are admittedly pirated?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:32 am
Phillay
Spotify has a deal with the Algoriddim company DJay, but that is for Mac/Apple only. I am hoping Virtual DJ can work out a deal for PC or cross platform with Spotify.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:36 am
SBDJ
3's a charm wrote :
I have virtual dj7. Net search isn't downloading as well. Will I be able to upgrade to 8 if this continues?
ues.
ues.
You can download v8 by hitting download at the top of the site.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:43 am
AsTheDJ
Thanks guys when all bugs are all fix can you post it so I can use agin.I was always having issue & problems with 8 but 7 was cool.
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 10:49 am
EnLad
kwilsonjr wrote :
In Grooveshark's statement, now visible on their website, they claim "we failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service" (emphasis mine). This sounds to me like it is more than just a few tracks as you claim. Is it legal to continue playing tracks that are cached since they are admittedly pirated?
"The New York district judge identified 2,963 recordings .. that are at issue. In addition, this week’s trial will count a further 1,944 ‘inferred uploads. In total... potentially liable for 4,907 tracks’" http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/grooveshark-faces-possible-736m-payout-as-universal-damages-trial-kicks-off/
"the judge in the case ruled that Grooveshark’s .. infringement meant damages could reach up to $150k per song, which, with 4,907 tracks part of the lawsuit"
(The Guardian) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/01/grooveshark-shuts-down-labels-music
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 11:11 am
dancesoundsdisco
I ran a trial of this, the tagging was terrible, to me, the results looks like a torrent website which is not acceptable when you're paying for the service.
I also flagged it's legality in the UK and after reading the Terms on GrooveShark's website, it was obviously pretty dodgy.
They asked that if your copyright was infringed, to get in touch and they would remove.... Would iTunes operate this way? Surely Grooveshark would know what tracks they had clearance for.
Ok, so if a DJ infringes another companies copyright (photos, or perhaps using an old pirate copy of VDJ), the disclaimer of "If you let me know, I'll stop using it" simply doesn't work for most of us.
I hope any replacement service is vetted for regional use and checks are made to ensure they are legal. The concept is pretty good, but music is cheap to buy and we should all have an adequate collection for the types of gigs we do.
Shouldn't a DJ actually have music?
I also flagged it's legality in the UK and after reading the Terms on GrooveShark's website, it was obviously pretty dodgy.
They asked that if your copyright was infringed, to get in touch and they would remove.... Would iTunes operate this way? Surely Grooveshark would know what tracks they had clearance for.
Ok, so if a DJ infringes another companies copyright (photos, or perhaps using an old pirate copy of VDJ), the disclaimer of "If you let me know, I'll stop using it" simply doesn't work for most of us.
I hope any replacement service is vetted for regional use and checks are made to ensure they are legal. The concept is pretty good, but music is cheap to buy and we should all have an adequate collection for the types of gigs we do.
Shouldn't a DJ actually have music?
Inviato Fri 01 May 15 @ 11:14 am
