Remember Grooveshark? It's OK if you don't - after all, the controversial music sharing app hasn't been available on the Play Store for more than two years after it made its amazingly brief debut. But users can still get the app as an APK download on Grooveshark's site, and last month they were thrilled to find that it supported Google's Chromecast streaming gadget. Until today, when Google unceremoniously blocked it from accessing Chromecast features... reportedly at the request of the RIAA.

Yes, the Recording Industry Association of America is still alive and kicking, serving as the real-world embodiment of John Lithgow in Footloose. The RIAA has objected to Grooveshark's business model for years, because it allows users access to streaming music verified by scanning ID3 tags as well as manual uploads. Subscription users can also stream songs and playlists from the libraries of other users, a huge sticking point for the RIAA and similar organizations in the Americas and Europe. Despite the fact that Grooveshark pays licensing for its music, the record labels have managed to get Grooveshark pulled from both Google Play and the iTunes App Store, and one label is trying to get it blocked entirely in the UK.

Google’s Chromecast has become an important stop for companies in the content streaming space. Music service Grooveshark is the latest to announce support for the HDMI dongle, which enables its paying users to stream content to a TV from desktop or mobile devices.

On the one-year anniversary of its launch, Google revealed that Chromecast users had “hit the cast button more than 400 million times” — that’s the kind of engagement that Grooveshark says prompted this move.

Grooveshark says its users spend on average 90 minutes with its service per session, with multiple visits per month. That’s a new metric we’ve not heard before.