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# Grooveshark Fires Back After Spotify CEO Calls Them A “Pirate Service”
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/grooveshark-fires-back-after-spotify-ceo-calls-them-a-pirate-service/
- Published: 2014-11-12T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2014-11-12T13:00:00.000Z
- Description: The subject of multiple lawsuits, Grooveshark has long been music streaming's bad boy; and that extends to a willingness to fight back when someone throws a punch. That certainly was this. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/11/grooveshark-fires-back-after-spotify-ceo-calls-them-a
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Music Business, Music Tech, Streaming, Artist, Canada, Grooveshark, Soundcloud, Spotify, Streaming media, Taylor Swift, The Pirate Bay, United States, YouTube, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:38

[![image from s3.amazonaws.com](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b7c7054d3d970b-150wi "image from s3.amazonaws.com")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b7c7054d3d970b-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

The subject of multiple lawsuits, **Grooveshark has long been music streaming's bad boy**; and that extends to a willingness to fight back when someone throws a punch. That certainly was this case today as **EVP Corporate Communications James A. Pearson shot back at Spotify CEO Daniel Ek** after he very publicly dubbed Grooveshark a **"pirate service."**

Ek's comments were part of a longer open letter that we published yesterday on the Taylor Swift controversary and the value he beleives Spotify brings to artists and the music industry. Ek wrote:

[![spotify](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201bb07aa9686970d-100wi "spotify")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201bb07aa9686970d-popup?ref=hypebot.com)"You can’t look at Spotify in isolation – even though T**aylor can pull her music off Spotify (where we license and pay for every song we’ve ever played)**, her songs are all over services and sites like **YouTube** and **Soundcloud**, where people can listen all they want for free. To say nothing of the **fans who will just turn back to pirate services like Grooveshark."**

James A. Pearson, EVP Corporate Communications of Grooveshark, responded via [VentureBeat](http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/11/grooveshark-hits-back-at-spotify-ceo-daniel-ek-for-referring-to-the-site-as-a-pirate-service/?ref=hypebot.com) with this statement:

[![grooveshark logo](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b7c7054e00970b-100wi "grooveshark logo")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201b7c7054e00970b-popup?ref=hypebot.com)"We would normally never comment on a competitive service and their dust-up with one of the world’s most popular artists. But as **Spotify’s CEO — who it’s worth mentioning [is the recent CEO of uTorrent](http://thetrichordist.com/2014/10/06/a-tale-of-two-pirates-daniel-ek-utorrent-and-kim-dotcom-megaupload/?ref=hypebot.com) — an app used by over 100M people, which had similar perception issues** — called Grooveshark ‘a pirate service’ in his blog response to Taylor Swift today, we had to comment on that element.**Copyright laws are complex,** and many companies that are now household names in the space such as **YouTube, Pandora, and SiriusXM have had to defend themselves at one point or another**, just as has Grooveshark. Had Mr. Ek any actual factual information about our business model he would know **Grooveshark currently has active licenses with thousands of music labels, publishers, and rights holders**, as well as tens of thousands of individual artists. We respect musicians and work to create new ways to get their music heard by a worldwide audience – that’s the driving force behind our existence."

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