Known for its illegal MP3 file sharing service, LimeWire has been revived for the NFT marketplace. According to Bloomberg, two Austrian entrepreneurs have spent the last couple of years acquiring the LimeWire brand and will relaunch it as a new platform in May.
“It’s a very iconic name. Even if you look on Twitter today, there’s hundreds of people still being nostalgic about the name,” said CEO Julian Zehetmayr, told Bloomberg. “Everybody connects it with music and we’re launching initially a very music-focused marketplace, so the brand was really the perfect fit for that with its legacy.”
The other CEO, Paul Zehetmayr, said: “After about 12 years of the platform being down, all the controversy that might have been in the past with the music industry has turned into nostalgia.”
The new LimeWire will be a place for buying and selling music-related non-fungible tokens, though users will have the option to purchase NFTs with US dollars or cryptocurrency. The CEOs had mentioned that 10 “really big mainstream” artists have agreed to offer up exclusive NFTs on the LimeWire marketplace so far. Wu-Tang Clan and H.E.R have reportedly have been in the mix.
LimeWire was shut down in 2010 after the company was found liable for copyright infringement in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of record companies.
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