Grooveshark
Grooveshark is a free MP3 streaming website that allows you to search for music by your favorite artists, create playlists of that music, and share it with your friends. There is also an area to upload your own music, and even an artist area to promote your band.
I am currently teaching a course in Advanced Audio Production and this tool will be something fantastic for my students to use. One way I could see this tool applied in the classroom is for the students’ research/public service announcement project. The assignment details are that the students must research music by their favorite artists, bands, or individual songs and write a biographical script on their findings. From their script they will record a 90-second public service announcement voice-track and back it with an example of the music they chose. This assignment will be the culmination of all of the skills they have learned in the class, such as recording, mixing, and mastering audio tracks and producing a high-quality piece.
This is a great tool for discovering new music and I could envision the students branching out of their personal taste genres and finding something new that they liked based on the search suggestions provided by Grooveshark and from the shared playlists from their fellow students.
I could see this used in many different aspects of education. One could be allowing the students to create their own music and create their own “channel” to share their creative ventures with other students. This could also venture into creating educational audio “podcasts” and integrating their creations with a Twitter account. Either way it is a great tool for just jamming to your favorite tunes while writing those research papers!
[Grooveshark logo image]. (2010). Retrieved February 15, 2010 from: http://www.grooveshark.com
Justin, this sounds like a great site, perfect for your class. At first read it sounds like Pandora, only with some additional features. I also like your assignment to have students write a biographical script of their findings, with audio. You mentioned that bands can upload and promote their own music. I guess if I was a band, this would be cool, but I'd want to be paid for people listening to my music, right?
ReplyDeleteJustin, interesting. I hadn't used this yet, but I'm working through it now. We should start some sort of forum that discusses / catalogs some of these services to figure out- how do iMeem, bebo, Grooveshark, Rhapsody, LaLa, iLike, all differ? Thanks for the input, I'm going to let you know what I find using Grooveshark in my class...
ReplyDeleteJustin. Thanks for introducing me to this application. I did not know about this Web 2.0 tool until now. I agree that there is the possibility of using it for some cool assignments for educational podcasts or public service announcements. I could see this being used in my Marketing classes for developing marketing messages using music. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeff's comment about musicians being paid for their music. Any copyright issues with using this site to compile and for re-use distribution?
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteThis is what I found on Grooveshark's website regarding royalties:
Is Grooveshark legal?
Grooveshark is 100% legal. It is our aim to revolutionize the way you listen to music, and we intend to do so in a completely legal manner. Artists and labels are compensated every single time a song is streamed from Grooveshark. If anyone is opposed to their content being on Grooveshark, we will happily remove it, but we would much prefer to pay them!
There is a lot of stuff on their website regarding Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). They basically say (like Youtube) that if anyone has a problem with their music being on there, they will gladly take it down, or offer to pay you royalties.
Justin, you may want to look at Jamendo as well. I believe there are similarities to Grooveshark, but Jamendo is associated with Creative Commons which gives users the necessary information for protecting the rights of the artists through proper attribution. Great post!
ReplyDeleteJustin, this sounds like a nice tool. I can see using this, especially for a few kids I know who produce their own music. They will fall in love with this. It will be a nice platform for them to keep all their original music and beats. I'm sure this will come in handy for them. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDelete