Grooveshark, the free online music streaming service that allowed users to upload their own songs, announced on Thursday that it was shutting down.

Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino founded the streaming service in 2006, and the site attracted tens of millions of users. Grooveshark called itself "the world’s largest on-demand and music discovery service." But the service not only allowed users to upload any song; the founders also apparently demanded that employees upload popular songs in an effort to expand the site's music library.

The service came under fire in recent years for allowing copyrighted material on the site. Several record companies, including Warner Bros., Sony, and Universal Music Group, sued Grooveshark in 2011. Now the record companies have come to an agreement with Grooveshark under which it shut down the site and removed all copyrighted songs.

On a statement on its website, Grooveshark admitted that the company “made very serious mistakes.”

“We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service,” the statement reads. “That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.”

The statement continues, “As part of a settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of the website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.”

Grooveshark encouraged music fans to check out other (licensed) streaming services, such as Spotify, Rdio, and Google Play.

Escape Media, the parent company of Grooveshark, could owe money to the record companies if the terms of the settlement are not followed.

“This is an important victory for artists and the entire music industry,” the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement. “For too long, Grooveshark built its business without properly compensating the artists, songwriters and everyone else who makes great music possible. This settlement ends a major source of infringing activity.”