Grooveshark brings legal music sharing to Gators — and the entire world

Panagiota Papakos
UF News

January 15 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Driving down University Avenue on his way to donate plasma two years ago, Sam Tarantino, a down-on-his-luck economics major, was struck with a revolutionary idea that would make him turn his car around and never have to sell his blood again.

“I looked over to my left and saw a sign in a store window that said buy/sell/trade CDs, and I thought ‘Why doesn’t that work on the digital level?’ Everyone’s computer is a warehouse,” Tarantino said.

While sharing music online is not new, Tarantino’s program would have a much different goal: reward people for sharing their digital music by paying everyone in the value chain – from users to copyright holders.

That spark led him to the University of Florida Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Office of Technology Licensing looking for business partners and advice. With the help of his business associates Josh Greenberg and Andres Barreto, the digital music sharing community, Grooveshark, was born.

“When you look at things through an economic lens and at the same time an artist’s lens, you realize things are messed up,” Tarantino said of the music industry. “We are essentially trying to finish what Napster started, and bring music to people all over the world.”

And like Napster, the music found on Grooveshark is high-quality and virus-free because it works through a central server to monitor traffic. To avoid prosecution, illegal file-sharing programs do not use central servers. And by compensating labels and artists for their songs, Grooveshark is bringing music downloading out of murky waters and into the future.

“The major labels were stifling any solution that could come into play,” Tarantino said. “They had to cut a head off of a hydra, but the hydra is still there. We have developed a better system for everyone.”

For every song sold through Grooveshark, the company first pays the artist or record label. All of the profits from shared songs are then split evenly between the user and the company. Users are also free to market their own songs through the program and generate revenue through downloads.

Since the initial launch last September, the network has had 11,000 account requests and about 7,300 registered active users.

“We’ve had a slow and steady growth,” Tarantino said. “It’s exciting to think about the possibilities, especially within the next few months.”

Grooveshark’s future looks bright according to David Day, who has been UF’s technology licensing director for the past seven years.

“It (Grooveshark) is a promising startup. They are some of the most dedicated entrepreneurs I have ever seen,” Day said.

Copyright 2008