Lime Wire to Sell DRM-Free MP3s
By Geoff Duncan
August 16, 2007
Peer-to-peer service Lime Wire has announced it plans to offer "legit" music sales in the form of 256 Kbps, DRM-free MP3 files. But will major labels go along?
One problem: exactly whose music will Lime Wire offer for sale? The music industry generally regards Lime Wire's peer-to-peer technology as a major contributor to online music piracy; in fact, major record labels filed suit against Lime Wire a year ago in the wake of successful litigation against P2P service Kazaa.
Lime Wire says its first partners in its music store are IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions: although neither are one of the "big four" music distributors, they do manage distribution for a number of independent labels and artists, including some well-known artists like the Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, and Paul Van Dyk. Now that EMI and Universal have programs offering DRM-free, MP3 version of music from their catalogs, it's not inconceivable that Lime Wire could strike up a partnership with one of those major labels, or a third-party distributor like MusicNet (which already has a deal with EMI to distribute DRM-free music to services like Yahoo Music and Urge).
Lime Wire has not announced any pricing plans for its service or indicated any timeframe for launching commercial music sales.
A big question is whether Lime Wire's efforts to offer legitimate music sales will prove to be a successful business strategy. Offering legit music sales within an application which (let us be honest) gives its users access to a wide library of copyright-infringing—but free!—music doesn't seem to be a recipe for success, unless the notion that users will opt for easily-accessible legal music options is a lot more powerful than one might imagine. Former P2P badboy Napster has yet to find commercial success despite converting to a legitimate service years ago, and there doesn't seem to be a lack of online music stores on the Internet right now—even ones offering DRM-free music. Does one more online music store have a chance to succeed?