Remember Grooveshark? You could stream any song you wanted, in high quality, for absolutely free. It sort of seemed too good to be true, which it was: every major music label sued the site into the depths of hell. Now the pummeling has hit home for the guy in charge: "I am like literally broke."

Mashable talked to Grooveshark co-founder and CEO Sam Tarantino, and it is very depressing. He describes the past year, wherein the music industry strangled him and killed his user base, as the “year of getting punched in the face 10,000 times.” This sounds like a low estimate of face-punches, given the following bleak quote:

"We all don't get paid a lot," he says. "I can speak for myself: I am literally broke. I am like literally broke and I am trying to lower my rent."

Yikes. Going legit isn't easy. Mashable says Grooveshark has "consolidated its operations to one small office above a dive bar in midtown New York and another larger space in a cheap town in Florida," with a new focus on internet radio. Good to see Grooveshark and Tarantino playing it frugal for an attempted comeback, but on the other hand, Spotify and Pandora. Oh, and Rdio. Oh, and a history of alienating every major copyright owner on the planet with a streaming music free-for-all.

Tarantino has high hopes for 2013—we hope he can downgrade to maybe only 2,000 punches to the face, tops. [Mashable]