Numbers are important.
In this technological age, where the Internet is the prime market for business dealings, companies obsess over the numbers their website draws. Websites can be made or broken by advertisers who want to promote products on websites with the highest hits and unique visitors every month.
In the social networking arena, the number of users a website has is the standard. Gainesville-based streaming service Grooveshark is no exception to that rule.
Since its start in 2007, Grooveshark has made a name for itself in digital music. Offering a preferable alternative to websites like Pandora, Grooveshark gives users more freedom in what music to listen to.
On May 9, Grooveshark registered its 10 millionth user. A lofty number to be sure, but behind the number is something more real and tangible.
Founders Sam Tarantino, Josh Greenberg and Andres Barreto, three former UF undergrads, might have dreamed of turning their project into a global presence four years ago, but predicting Grooveshark's success around the globe would have been nearly impossible for those who watched the site grow.
Grooveshark's milestone is not only an important moment in the history of the company, which celebrated by streaming an in-office countdown live on Ustream, but an important day for a historic Gainesville music culture.
Gainesville's punk and indie DIY scene is one that has been well-documented by a lineage of prominent bands. Aside from spawning groups that have found success like Against Me!, Less Than Jake and Hot Water Music, Gainesville is currently home to two prominent indie labels in No Idea and Paper + Plastick Records.
Grooveshark is an example of a website that was built with a DIY mentality, a strong work ethic and a knowledge of what music listeners want in a streaming service. Its global presence is another testament to the success of Gainesville's breeding ground, and Tarantino, Greenberg and Barreto have earned every single one of the numbers their website leans on.
Although not as widely known as Pandora (which hit 50 million users in 2010), Grooveshark definitely offers the better product from a purely streaming perspective. Users can play any specific song or artist as much as they like as opposed to Pandora's music genome that maps artists and songs together on radio stations.
From this music listener's perspective, Grooveshark is the way to go. Not only would you be supporting a local business by signing up for an account with Grooveshark, you'd be getting an excellent product and would become part of an exciting chapter in the website's story.
Because even though it has just reached new heights, Grooveshark is only going to go up from here.
