Grooveshark Founder Dead At 28

Grooveshark co-founder Joshua Greenberg was found dead Sunday, but the cause of death was not immediately clear.

According to CNN, Greenberg, who founded Grooveshark with friends in 2006, was reported dead by police in Gainesville, Fla. Police said it did not appear that the Grooveshark founder was the victim of either foul play or suicide.

Josh Greenberg, co-founder of #Grooveshark was found dead in his Gainesville home Sunday evening. No evidence of foul play or suicide.

— gainesvillepd (@GainesvillePD) July 20, 2015

Billboard reports that Greenberg was discovered dead in his bed by his live-in girlfriend, who had been away from home for the weekend. Greenberg, who had founded Grooveshark as a 19-year-old college student, was 28-years-old when he died.

The Gainesville Sun interviewed Greenberg’s mother, who told the paper her son had not been sick. Lori Greenberg also said the medical examiner had not been able to determine a cause of death.

“They are as baffled as I am,” she said.

While the autopsy failed to give clues into the Grooveshark founder’s death, authorities said a toxicology screen could help to explain things. The results of those tests will not likely be available for several months, however.

Greenberg had been in the news earlier this year when Grooveshark, the streaming music service he created, was closed down as part of a settlement with record labels. Greenberg and his partners had wanted Grooveshark to be legitimate, but they were unable to create a business model the record companies could support.

The Grooveshark website remains today as a tombstone of sorts for the company. The url www.grooveshark.com now points visitors to a page that contains the announcement that Grooveshark was shutting down forever.

“Despite the best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes,” the Grooveshark website says. “We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.”

In addition to shuttering the Grooveshark website, the settlement required Greenberg and his company to surrender ownership to all Grooveshark assets including patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Escape Media Group, the parent company that owned Grooveshark, was also required to pay $50 million to the record companies.

Lori Greenberg said despite the failure of Grooveshark, her son had not been depressed. If anything, she said, he was looking to put Grooveshark behind him and move on.

“He was excited about potential new things that he was going to start,” she said.

Sam Tarantino, Greenberg’s classmate and Grooveshark co-founder, has yet to comment publicly on the death of his partner.

[Image via Grooveshark]