Remember LimeWire? Shuttered file-sharing service is again with NFTs

File-sharing service LimeWire, which shut down in 2011 below fireplace from the music trade, is making a comeback as a digital collectibles market for artwork and leisure, initially specializing in music. Launched in 2000, LimeWire turned the world’s greatest outlet for individuals to share music, motion pictures, and TV reveals freed from cost over the web, attracting 50 million month-to-month customers at its peak reputation.

Blaming piracy as one of many principal causes for declining music gross sales, file firms sued LimeWire in 2006, forcing it to close down 5 years later. But now LimeWire plans to leap on the most recent web bandwagon: NFTs.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a crypto asset which makes use of blockchain to file who owns a digital file comparable to a picture or video. While NFTs would permit artists and musicians to have extra management over digital copies of their work — repairing the harm brought on by unlawful streaming — the nascent market is rife with scams, fraud and market manipulation.

It was a posh course of for the brand new workforce – led by co-CEOs Paul Zehetmayr and Julian Zehetmayr – to personal LimeWire mental properties after 12 years of inactivity.

LimeWire mentioned it can associate with the music trade and the artists, who can promote pre-release music, unreleased demos, graphical paintings, unique dwell variations, in addition to digital merchandise and backstage content material.

The new LimeWire workforce, unfold over Austria, Germany and the UK, plans to launch the service in May that may permit music followers and collectors to purchase and commerce a wide range of music-related property.

“We want to open up the gates for small, medium and big artists with a lot of moderation and curation,” Zehetmayr mentioned.

It plans to surrender to 90% of the income to the artists and seeking to onboard a million customers inside the first yr.

“LimeWire kind of laid the foundation for music streaming … it’s a piece of internet legacy and we are thankful that we can turn it around at something for the music industry,” Zehetmayr mentioned.