Thursday, April 7, 2011

Grooveshark booted from Android Market; how to sideload it



Google has booted the music app Grooveshark from the Android Market. While it's still unclear as to the exact reason that the app was kicked out, the theory is that it was booted because of pressure over possible copyright violations.

>Grooveshark is a service that allows free music streaming via files that its users have posted to the site.

While the app is not in the Android Market any longer, and isn't in the Amazon Appstore either, you can still install it via sideloading. Unlike iOS, Android apps can be installed from other app repositories as long as the end user sets the appropriate setting in the Android OS.

From Settings, go to Applications and check the box next to Unknown Sources. Unfortunately, just as with the Amazon Appstore, which is based on sideloading as well, there's no easy way for AT&T users to do this as that carrier has seen fit to remove that setting. AT&T users can use the Sideload Wonder Machine (SWM) but it's not for the non-techie.

Grooveshark for Android, the app, is free, but in order to use it, you have to have a Grooveshark for Anywhere account that costs $9 / month. Therefore, downloading this APK (Android Application) file is not piracy.

You can download the file here. It's version 2.0.8; we're unclear if that is the latest version, but the file itself was discovered by BI, so we believe it to be legitimate. Hopefully, the company itself will post the APK on its own site.

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