Streaming music firm Grooveshark’s future remains uncertain, given the legal action it’s facing from rightsholders. However, the company has pressed on with a redesign of its web service, which in now-traditional Web 2.0 style it’s calling ‘New Grooveshark’. The new site went live yesterday for users to try.

It’s following some of the same trends we’ve seen on rival services, with more of an emphasis on recommendations and personalised radio stations. Social features are also the fore, with stations also personalised based on friends’ music listening, and the ability to follow other users and share songs or playlists to various social networks.

More interestingly, Grooveshark is trying to build bridges with artists with the launch of a new ‘Artists’ Dashboard’ promising analytics and communication tools.

“Ever cared for knowing who your biggest listeners were, or what your fans are saying about your tunes? The new artist functionalities allow artists to to interact with their audience while delivering music to the millions of Grooveshark users,” claims the company.

There’s another aspect: a tie-in with micropayments platform Flattr to help users donate tip-jar-style directly to artists on their Grooveshark profile pages. That said, artists will only get the money by claiming it on Flattr. We sense many would much rather be paid by Grooveshark through traditional licensing deals for plays of their songs.