LimeWire Follows Suit

The peer-to-peer site joins forces with the majors.

18 October 2008 - The file sharing website LimeWire is looking to set up a new service to provide licensed music.

The company, which has around 100 million users, is currently facing a multi-million pound law suit brought by record labels. They charge that LimeWire’s executives are committing copyright infringement by providing the software which allows people to swap songs online.

But LimeWire's defense is that they merely provide the software, and are not responsible for the way people use it.

However, the tension could be coming to an end, as bosses at the software giant revealed that they're about to strike deals with the 4 major record labels and will soon transform LimeWire into a Google-like music search engine.

This isn't the first unlikely industry collaboration of its kind. Earlier this year Universal was suing MySpace in federal court for copyright violations. Now the two companies are joint venture partners in the social networking site's new ad-supported free music service.

Kevin Bradshaw is the Chief Operating Officer at LimeWire and he reckons his company have already got one new project up and running:

“Over the last couple of years we’ve got really close to the labels and we actually established a music store which is coming along quite nicely. We’ve got a couple of million tracks in there, DRM free mp3’s.”

“Companies like ourselves, and the relationship we can have with the labels are going to be a really important part of defining what music industry looks like in this century.” Kevin Bradshaw - LimeWire

LimeWire is trying to reinvent itself as a legitimate music service and is even supporting independents like +1. Kevin Bradshaw reckons the site will be a major player in the music market:

“We’re certainly no ITunes. But we consider that we could become a viable competitor for some of the existing incumbent music stores online. So it’s a pretty exciting project for us.”

If all goes to plan LimeWire could offer the sort of licensed music service which the original Napster could have become. 

This is another sign that the music industry is changing its attitude towards the digital age. A couple of years ago, for the major labels to strike a deal with a peer-to-peer service would have seemed laughable. But now, the music industry realise they have to embrace these companies to save their own necks. To work with LimeWire appears to be more lucrative  for record labels than to engage in a fight with them over copyright infringement. 

Bradshaw said he was looking forward to working with the major labels to create an industry strong enough to withstand the challenges of the digital age:

“Companies like ourselves, and the relationship we can have with the labels, are going to be a really important part of defining what music industry looks like in this century.”

Elizabeth Alker