Grooveshark, the Gainesville music-streaming service started by two University of Florida freshmen, hit a major milestone last month by registering its two millionth user.
The site now has users all over the world except, Spain and Japan because of their strict ISP laws. Its biggest cities are London, Sydney, New York, Chicago and Istanbul.

“It all happened pretty quick,” says Isaac Moredock, vice president of communications. He says Grooveshark has grown 50 percent a month since the company recently launched its newly designed site. If the company continues its growth rate, they hope to have 50 million to 100 million unique visits by the end of the year, which is about the amount Youtube gets.
Started by Josh Greenberg, 22, and Sam Tarantino, 23, Grooveshark allows visitors to upload and share music for free. Tarantino came up with the concept when he saw a used-record store that allowed you to buy, sell or trade music. He then decided to take that concept and put it online.
Although users cannot download the music, they can create playlists, find favorite artists or songs and find people also listening to that music. The company also has phone applications for the Blackberry, Android and iPhone so users can access the whole site on their phones. The site is able to generate revenue through advertisements, artist promotions and $3 VIP monthly memberships.
Along with the now more than 2 million registered users, more than 5 million unique users use the Web site, and they stay around an hour and a half apiece, compared to Facebook’s average of stay time of 25 minutes and Myspace’s time of 15 minutes.
Moredock says the way the site operates makes it appealing to users. “What’s different about Grooveshark is that you don’t have to be a member to use it,” he says.
Although the company started with only a few people working in an office on UF’s campus, it has now grown to about 25 paid employees, all around 23 years old, and a handful of interns with an office overlooking downtown.
The company plans to open offices in New York or Los Angeles within the next year, and depending on how their revenue develops, they hope to spread to Australia and Southeast Asia. But they will always have a home Gainesville.“This is just a recruiting hub and there’s a lot of talent here,” Moredock says. “We’re always going to have a place in Gainesville.