Grooveshark, an online music streaming service which allows you to play back individual tracks, artists or albums, has recently started accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. At only $9 per month, you can subscribe to the music streaming site’s unlimited ad-free service.
Unfamiliar with Bitcoin? It is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency which uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money.
Other than Grooveshark, several other sites recently started accepting Bitcoin as an alternative payment option. They include personal computer retailer site Newegg, online travel site Expedia, blog hosting site WordPress, PirateBay, popular internet site Reddit, as well as internet dating site OKCupid, among many others.
As technology blog The Next Web pointed out too, Apple too started letting the first Bitcoin apps back into the App Store following its new policy on virtual currencies, while Google and Yahoo took steps to recognize Bitcoin as a legit currency after they started showing Bitcoin prices on their respective finance networks.
While Grooveshark might be the first music streaming site to accept Bitcoin, other music streaming sites such as Spotify or Deezer have not enabled Bitcoin as a payment option, and they seem to be focusing a lot on user growth through partnerships.
Take Deezer for example, it is focusing on capturing the travellers market: it recently partnered with Jetstar Airlines as well as taxi booking app GrabTaxi to bring music to travellers who are on the move.