Livio Radio Teams With Grooveshark

By Stewart Wolpin -- TWICE, 1/12/2011

Las Vegas - Internet radio device maker Livio Radio will produce a tabletop radio and car radio adapter co-branded with Grooveshark, an online music site boasting 20 million unique visitors per month and featuring 7 millions songs from mainstream and independent labels and a library of user-generated music.

The two products are part of a multi-year partnership announced during CES. The partnership is one of a series of deals Livio has struck recently, including content and device deals with Dice, Pandora and NPR.

"Livio has done a tremendous job working with digital radio partners like Pandora and NPR, and we look forward to pushing new product frontiers with Grooveshark and Livio's new devices and car solutions," said Sam Tarantino, Grooveshark's CEO and co-founder.

Both companies hope to make Internet audio more accessible to more users by making it accessible in more home and portable devices. 

Grooveshark, which promotes itself as the world's most comprehensive on-demand music service, had heretofore been limited to web-connected computers via its website. The service is ad-supported but offers ad-free Grooveshark Plus service for $6/month and a new Grooveshark Anywhere, which enables access to the service from multiple devices, for $9/month.

The car radio adapter consists of a removable control module with Grooveshark-specific controls atop a flexible stalk with a cigarette lighter adapter. The kit connects via Bluetooth to a Web-enabled mobile phone to pull in the Grooveshark site, then transmits the music stream to the car's stereo through a blank FM station.

The kit will cost $60 to $80 when it becomes available sometime this summer. No pricing or availability specifics on the tabletop radio were available.

Livio previously announced a deal with Dice to offer aftermarket car-audio integration kits that will enable a vehicle's factory-installed sound system to play thousands of Internet radio stations through a connected iPhone.