More about: LimeWire

The world is split into people who remember The Millennium and people who were too young (or, God forbid, not even born yet) to recall Y2K. In the former camp is a generation of people who grew as the internet grew...and here you will find many a LimeWire devotee.

Back then, LimeWire was used for evil (in the eyes of labels and artists anyway), allowing music fans to rip audio files for free. For many, it was the first experience of curating one's own music library, replacing the elder generations' memory of going out to buy their first record. This is true even of Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, the brothers who have bought the platform — and are planning on using it for good.

Here, we chat about the new LimeWire, newly refreshed as a platform simplifying NFTs and collaborating with — rather than working against — artists.

Gigwise: Hi both! First off...what memories do you have of LimeWire?

LimeWire: We’re big fans of the brand; we both used it in our teenage years and so have most of the cryptocurrency [community]...and everyone in our age group.

GW: It was a phenomenon!

LW: I downloaded my first music through it and that’s the response we get from most people who have used it in the past. I remember using it for music…allegedly. I remember trying to download a Soulja Boy track. Most of the musicians we’re talking to have used LimeWire at some point in their lives!

GW: What is LimeWire going to be when it launches again?

LW: We’re launching it to the music space in May. We have audio-based NFTs: songs that have been made exclusively for LimeWire or that is audio-based in general. But also music related arts: digital artworks that are music related or related to the artist. That might be artwork, graphics, backstage content…anything that a fan would be willing to spend money on, including music itself.

GW: What exactly could those arts include?

LW: We’re pushing most for exclusive music but we’re open to any kind of collectible that relates to music.

One artist for example is selling a one-on-one with him that includes a private concert over zoom. We have some artists doing meet and greets attached to the NFTs. Some act as a ticket for future events of an artist or of LimeWire. Some give access to the exclusive track.

GW: How are you going to tackle LimeWire's past? Did you think about changing the name?

LW: We didn’t consider changing the name, [but] it has a controversial history that we’re now trying to change by building a great product that’s for artists and not against them. It’s the first brand that gave us access to music on an immediate basis so from the consumer side we think it’s a great brand that can be taken into the future in a great way.

Julian and Paul Zehetmayr

GW: Do people really want NFTs?

LW: We think it’s extremely important to attach some kind of access and perks to NFTs because if it’s just an image that exists on a blockchain that anyone can download, we don’t necessarily see the value either...

But if ownership of an NFT might give you access to a membership, special events or special content in general — that’s a whole different story. It's also really interesting in the long run for the secondary market. It’s a like a ticket: it could be a ticket to exclusive events, a one-on-one with the artist. We also focus on a physical experience associated with the ownership.

GW: It makes much more sense to attach something physical to the purchase of an NFT...

LW: We really push for quality content. If you look on other platforms you see a lot of apes and cats which we don’t see as having much value. We’re really pushing all of the artists we’re working with to create quality content that their fans appreciate that doesn’t look like a cash grab. About half of the artists we work with are producing music for LimeWire which will only live on the platform as an NFT. It can be compared really well to the Wu-Tang album that was only produced once.

GW: Why did you decide to sell in dollars?

LW: We want to be reachable for our mainstream audience, in terms of pricing as well. It’s one element of many that we’re using to make the product more easy to get into. You don’t need a [crypto] wallet to sign up or use the platform.

If you’re not in crypto, I think it's hard to understand how much [something] really costs. Only a small percentage of fans are in crypto so pricing in dollars — especially because we’re gong for a broad market — makes the most sense. Also a lot of the artists prefer being paid in USD for the same reasons. 

(We accept crypto as a payment method and you can convert it on transaction.)

GW: Are you all about uncomplicating NFTs then?

LW: Definitely. Most of the platforms out there are really confusing. The crypto space is really abstract already and not many people understand the mechanic of the tech, blockchain especially, so we can at least try to make the UX easy. 

We always focus on curation: we think most of the platforms out there you get swamped with things you might not want to see so we want to give people proper categorisation, proper search, etc.

GW: Will you only be focusing on music NFTs?

LW: We’re exploring film really heavily for the end of the year. With film you can think of [NFTs taking the form of] outtakes from popular movies, CGI collectibles like a Star Wars lightsaber, iconic scenes and items that appear in movies. But we’re also exploring partnerships with small studios that could launch short movies on LimeWire. There could be 5,000 versions of a short film only available on Limewore, for example. That’s something we’re exploring.

We’re also looking at other categories but we see in the long term LimeWire being the ultimate entertainment NFT platform.

GW: LimeWire 2.0 is going to be a good thing for artists...right?

LW: There’s a 90/10 split on the first sale. We take a 10% commission on the first sale and then the artist can set the royalty which is usually around 5%, so everytime the NFT is sold on the artist will get a cut. If you look at a record back in the day, the artist doesn’t participate in any future sales. As the price [of an NFT] potentially goes up and demand increases, they’ll still be benefitting. 

We want to provide another revenue stream for artists so we’re not working against labels.

GW: What parts of NFTs do you think have staying power?

LW: The concept around NFTs that make sense will stay. NFTs are a really early market: a lot of the use cases will be stripped away over time. Producing quality content, royalties are really interesting, offering a new revenue stream to allow artists to monetise things locked in a cupboard or on YouTube. Collectibles have always been interesting but now they’re being digitised and we think it’s about time.

Back in the day you used to go to a record store and collect LPs and obviously people are still doing that. We want to provide a digital solution for that. In general, owning a digital item is really interesting.

GW: Other than artists, who is LimeWire for?

LW: There are really loyal communities around artists that are willing to do that - it should be a platform for them. To engage uniquely with their artists.

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More about: LimeWire