LimeWire Music Sharing Service is Back to Bring NFTs to Everyone

LimeWire, which was once a peer-to-peer music sharing service, will now be relaunched as a music-focused NFT marketplace, expected to be released in May.

A famous early-2000s peer-to-peer music sharing service is stepping into non-fungible tokens (NFTs). LimeWire's new owners stated today that the brand will be relaunched as an NFT marketplace, initially focusing on music and associated items.

LimeWire, led by co-CEOs Paul and Julian Zehetmayr, a pair of serial digital entrepreneurs, will launch in May. According to Decrypt, the brothers bought the LimeWire brand last year in order to revive it to a new generation of digital listeners.

“We highly appreciate the strength and energy around the LimeWire brand and what it meant for a whole generation of people,” Paul and Julian stated, they further added “we could not be more excited to bring it back to life in the fast-moving world of digital collectibles, music, and entertainment.”

LimeWire will be run by a brand-new staff with no ties to the old company, which began in 2000. The original LimeWire service was shut down in 2010 after a legal injunction was issued in response to a series of legal challenges from record companies alleging copyright infringement.

Paul and Julian see the relaunch as an opportunity to reshape LimeWire's long-term narrative. Rather than allowing users to freely distribute songs as the old LimeWire did, the new LimeWire aims to assist artists by allowing them to sell NFTs that represent songs, providing consumers with a direct link to the musicians they support.

The new LimeWire marketplace aims for accessibility in order to attract a larger user base. In collaboration with Wyre, it will price NFTs in US dollars and accept credit card, bank transfer, and other fiat currency payments. Know-your-customer (KYC) compliance measures will be in place, and the use of a self-custodied crypto wallet will not be required.

The company hasn't said which blockchain network it'll use, but according to a press release, it'll be cost-effective, energy-efficient, and have quick transactions, as well as a "main blockchain" that can connect assets to Ethereum and the sidechain scaling solution Polygon.