LimeWire is now getting serious about its paid platform, an alter-ego to its ultra-successful – and totally free – file-sharing service.
On Tuesday, the Manhattan-based Lime Wire LLC finalized a content agreement with The Orchard, a deal that adds approximately 1.2 million songs to the LimeWire Store. The content injection pushes the total catalog past two million, according to company estimates.
The LimeWire Store (store.limewire.com) first emerged several months ago, and already contains content from Redeye Distribution, Nettwerk Music Group, and IRIS. The store offers DRM-free MP3s, encoded at 256kbps, a format that plays well for most music fans.
In terms of pricing, the catalog will be available as one-off, a-la-carte downloads, though fans can also secure content through monthly subscription packages. The tiers include 25 monthly downloads for $9.99; 50 downloads for $14.99; and 75 songs for $19.99. “If you use them all, you are getting deeply discounted music,” Lime Wire chief financial officer Jesse Rubenfeld told Digital Music News.
That spells another viable option for independent music fans, though LimeWire is famous for serving free downloads to millions of file-sharers across various music styles – including mainstream, major label content. Whether those users will suddenly start paying remains speculative, and Rubenfeld declined to share pre-Orchard sales specifics. “Relative to zero, we have seen a lot of growth,” Rubenfeld offered. “I have been writing royalty checks every month, and they are more than doubling.”
Meanwhile, Lime Wire LLC is saddling a major label lawsuit, one that has dragged for years. In that light, the LimeWire Store offers a nice counterweight to the file-sharing free-for-all, though Rubenfeld preferred to describe the core LimeWire service as “organic peer-to-peer results,” a characterization the majors are challenging. “Lime Wire started as a technology company, and this store represents the first intersection of that endeavor with the music industry,” Rubenfeld said. “We are going to make this work for artists and labels – and for us, too.”
Story by publisher Paul Resnikoff.