Grooveshark was at the top of our list of new iPhone and iPad apps released last week, but after a few short days of App Store residency, it has been removed from sale.  For those who aren’t familiar with Grooveshark, it’s a web-based streaming music service along the lines of Spotify.

According to a Grooveshark blog post on the app’s disappearance, Apple sent them a note informing them they had received a complaint from Universal Music UK concerning the app, resulting in them pulling it from the store.  The post reiterates the amount of work that goes into creating an app like this – quotes like ‘a year of working diligently’ and ‘leaping through all the hoops’ sums the experience up we think.

What the blog post doesn’t detail is exactly what Universal’s problem is.  One can assume that it’s licensing related, an area which must have been something of a nightmare to sort out in the first place, as Grooveshark is available worldwide.

As one would expect, Grooveshark want to get the app reinstated as soon as possible and have this to say on the situation:

This comes as an absolute surprise to us, and we are not sleeping until we figure out exactly how to fix this—and get Grooveshark for iPhone back in the App Store. Above all, our biggest concern is damaging the service we provide to all of you guys—our loyal (awesome) users.

It sounds like the app is still functioning happily for those who downloaded it, so let’s hope the situation is resolved soon and Grooveshark finds plenty more iPhone users.