LimeWire is being resuscitated as an NFT marketplace more than a decade after the free file-sharing platform was shut down because of a lengthy legal battle with the US music industry over piracy claims.

Media reports suggest that Austrian entrepreneur brothers Paul and Julian Zehetmayr are planning to re-launch the service this May after buying the intellectual property and assets last year.

The brothers said LimeWire will re-launch as a marketplace for trading NFTs with a focus on music. This will allow users to buy or trade rare music-related items such as limited editions, unreleased demos and digital merchandise.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique digital files with ownership recorded and verified using blockchain technology. After a surge in interest last year, the NFT market surpassed an estimated $40bn in value.

Why was it shut down?

LimeWire, once the world’s most popular websites at its peak, was one of the first platforms to introduce the concept of music and film streaming through peer-to-peer file-sharing.

The only problem was, unlike current subscription-based streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix, LimeWire didn’t pay artists for their work.

This led to the company being heavily criticised by record labels, eventually being sued in 2006 by the Recording Industry Association of America. A five-year legal battle culminated in the website and service being shut down indefinitely.

Now, the Zehetmayr brothers aim to revive LimeWire by jumping on the nascent NFT market trend, with plans to give up to 90pc of revenue to the artists and hopes to have one million subscribers within the first year, according to Reuters.

Why NFT?

By re-launching itself in the NFT space after more than a decade of inactivity, LimeWire may be able to salvage some of its damages to the music industry through illegal streaming. NFTs on the platform will give artists more control over digital copies of their work, with greater potential for remuneration.

According to CNBC, the company is aiming for a more accessible approach towards NFTs, where people can make purchases through regular currency instead of crypto and users will be able to purchase tokens with their credit cards.

LimeWire will have an advisory board with representation from the music industry, including names such as Tareef Michael, manager of the popular rap group Wu-Tang Clan.

Julian Zehetmayr, who performs the role of co-CEO along with his brother, told CNBC that the issue with the NFT market the way it is currently is that “most platforms are currently decentralised”.

“If you look at bitcoin, all the exchanges are making it really easy to buy, trade and sell bitcoin. There’s no one really doing the same in the NFT space,” he said.

“We’ve obviously got this great mainstream brand that everybody’s nostalgic about. We thought we needed to build a real mainstream user experience as well.”

The brothers have funded LimeWire with money they raised from their previous ventures, including their software company Apilayer, which was acquired by US holding company Idera last year. The team will be based across Austria, Germany and the UK.

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