Major Labels Sue New Music Startup Aurous Days After Launch

The service has been called “Popcorn Time for music.”

October 14, 2015

Aurous is the newest kid on the block of free music streaming services, launching its earliest alpha version this past Saturday. The service differentiates itself in that it hosts no music on its servers, instead acting as an ad-free aggregator that pulls from various other file sources on the internet. Of course, the major label system is displeased – The Guardian reports that the RIAA has already filed a lawsuit against the company on behalf of label subsidiaries from each of the Big Three majors, comparing the company to sites like Limewire and Grooveshark (the latter of which shut down earlier this year).

ADVERTISEMENT

Aurous founder Andrew Sampson remained defiant in the face of the looming lawsuit, and has received support from the digital civil liberties organization Electronic Frontier Foundation.

ADVERTISEMENT

The RIAA, however, is confident that they have a strong case to bring against Aurous. “Defendants have failed to take any meaningful action to prevent the widespread and rapidly growing infringement by its users, and in fact have taken affirmative steps to encourage, promote, and assist infringement by their users." claims the lawsuit.

ADVERTISEMENT
Major Labels Sue New Music Startup Aurous Days After Launch