LimeWire to Launch Legit Music Store

By the Betanews Staff | Published August 15, 2007, 1:44 PM

File sharing company LimeWire has announced plans to open a legitimate music store, which it will eventually integrate into its popular -- and controversial -- P2P software. The company is facing increasing pressure to clean up its business after being sued by the record industry.

While the court case is ongoing and the RIAA is demanding $150,000 for every song illegally shared via LimeWire, the company has kept its business moving forward. The LimeWire store won't have an extensive library to begin with, as it is initially only licensing music from IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions. But the songs will be available as 256kbps MP3s with no copy protection. Both a la carte downloads and subscription offerings will be available to customers, but pricing has not yet been announced.

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I have to admit I would pay Limewire a subscription if I knew for a fact that my content would not vanish in a year or so cause the DRM broke or was purposely broken by the "industry" in order to force you into buying it yet again... as has happened oh so often in the past... This is the news I have been waiting for. A good DRM-free subscription service that lets you download mp3s that you can keep forever and use on anything you wish. God help me I think the Industry finally woke up and discovered the 21st century... Lets hope the system maintains the title offerings it has now... which is easily 80% of whats available good and bad... lol well mostly bad lol but least they got it...

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yey! another MP3 topic!

i can't really see how p2p can be used for legal music distribution. unless if someone who is keeping his purchased music available for others to download (for money) recieves compensaion for his time, power and bandwidht, he spent uploading.

DRM free format is really welcome. but (as i said in the other topic) Britney spears music(replace with POP "artist" of your choice) is utter crap DRM or no DRM.

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i can't really see how p2p can be used for legal music distribution. unless if someone who is keeping his purchased music available for others to download (for money) recieves compensaion for his time, power and bandwidht, he spent uploading.


If the artist or label controlling the rights allows for this method of distribution (usually for promotional materials), it's perfectly legal. There are plenty of indie labels and artists that use BT for digital distribution, not to mention linux distros, etc.

P2P isn't the "Evil" the RIAA has made it out to be, though, by and large, the vast majority of folks use it for illegal purposes.

RM free format is really welcome. but (as i said in the other topic) Britney spears music(replace with POP "artist" of your choice) is utter crap DRM or no DRM.

No disagreement there.

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At $150,000 a Song, I need to put my CD collection on eBay!

I am sitting on at least $320,000,000!!!

Where does the RIAA get it's figures from, #2 (Austin Powers Movies).

MUUUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Dr. Evil Laughs)

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"Where does the RIAA get it's figures from?"

it used the best and absolut method there is for this analysis - crystal ball. a lot of companies use it these days.

reminds me of "The man in tights" move:
"Blinkins! waht are you doing up there?!"
"I'm guessing. I guess no one is coming..."

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