LimeWire Store Opens for Business
Written by enigmax on March 17, 2008LimeWire has just launched a beta version of its online store, requiring no additional software and offering DRM-free MP3 music downloads for as little as $0.27 per track.
A message on the LimeWire Store frontpage reads: “Welcome to the LimeWire Store: We’re so new, we’re beta!”
A little late, but open for business today, the LimeWire Store Beta is here offering a web browser-based interface for downloading music. Even though the same people are behind the LimeWire P2P client, the system is centralized, with the company hosting the MP3s on its own servers.
No subscription is required to use the store and tracks can also be paid for individually at $0.99 each, but there are significant savings to be had with some of the pre-paid plans. The ‘Platinum’ plan offers the best price, offering 75 ‘Download Credits’ for $19.99 a month, which works out to $0.27 per track. ‘Download Credits’ can be purchased using a Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit cards.
Right now, the store is a browser based experience for anyone running Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Firefox, Safari or Opera, but in the future the store will also be integrated into the LimeWire client. In an interview with Slyck last year, LimeWire said of the integration:
Our plan with the LimeWire Store is to add to the LimeWire experience–we’re not going to take anything away. We think purchase links should appear alongside Gnutella search results, similar to how Google keeps sponsored links separate. We believe a significant number of users will choose to purchase content if the presentation is convenient and unobtrusive, the price is right, and the product isn’t hindered by DRM.
True to their word, all the tracks are being offered as DRM-free 256kbps VBR (variable bitrate) MP3s. However, due to the dreaded ‘licensing issues’, LimeWire Store is only available to US customers at the moment.
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61 Responses
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MP3 is shit, simple as. If you cant tell the difference between V0@260k and FLAC@800k then you’re either deaf or your stereo is a piece of shit. I mean stereo, as in a proper hifi separates system, not some half assed, over priced set of active pc speakers made from crap quality components in shiney plasic boxes. Suppose you’re all also blind and cant tell the difference between 1000kbps avi and 1080p either.
They should be distributing lossless quality singles. If someone wants to then convert that to mp3, fine, at least then there is choice. Screw lossy formats. Better yet, there is absolutely no reason what so ever not to offer studio quality (24/96) for download for a slightly higher charge. I paid for an uber quality 192khz soudcard, I want something that will put it to good use, not some shite quality lossy format with 75% of the bits missing. They should take a page out of Linn Records book, and offer REAL quality at a very reasonable price.
Limewire has had over 139,000,000 downloads (making it #3 of the top 50) at download.com
In any event, this isn’t about selling mp3’s and being an iTunes competitor as much as it is about legalizing the software, just as Azureus did with Vuze.
Yet again, you completely miss the point.
[quote]However, due to the dreaded ‘licensing issues’, LimeWire Store is only available to US customers at the moment.[/quote]
Wow, now that is just pure, unadulterated business foresight and intelligence right there; these guys must be the corporate masters of the business world. I’m sure their lawyers all graduated cum laude and their managers and CEOs are all first-in-class.
Sheer, staggering genius! Make sure most of the planet has no legal way to aquire their music - just cripple the single best music service (i.e. the one that doesn’t gouge the customer for a product worth 1/20th of its cost, and that doesn’t crap all over what the customer has paid for with drm and quality-restrictions);
that way, by leaving the customer faced with only two choices:
a) 20x-overpriced, crapped on goods, vs.
b) free, high quality goods,
the customer will OBVIOUSLY decide to sympathize with the corporate millionaires, and hand over all their money!
Why didn’t I think of that!!!
This might sound a bit silly.. but since i cant remember ever using limewire dont really know the answer..
but… if I get this story right, they are offering user uploaded tracks (ie pirated tracks) for free and also offering the same tracks for pay-and-download?
And my 2 cents, I do agree with the user above who says the artists are not going to see sh1t at 27c a track… itunes is already screwing them and they are charging nearly 4 times as much…
Limewire, AFAIR, was one of the few or perhaps the only Gnutella client written in Java.
I used it some years ago, but ultimately dumped it because it turned out to be unstable (one way or another), not to mention slow, both of which seemed to be due to Java.
Not long after I dumped LW, bittorrent took off.
I’ve used bittornado since and I almost can’t imagine using LW again.
Licencing of content is not down to Limewire, its down to the content providers who want to secure their over inflated profits in other countries while selling cheap crap in the US. For instance, if a track sells for 27c in the US, exchange rates mean that it should be about 13p in the UK. Knowing that they can use licencing to charge double, say 27p (about 55c) in the UK, means they will. The same thing happens with just about all other retail goods. Microsoft sell XP in China for about $3, but you can forget expicting that price from your local Walmart.
[quote comment="313287"]
And my 2 cents, I do agree with the user above who says the artists are not going to see sh1t at 27c a track… itunes is already screwing them and they are charging nearly 4 times as much…[/quote]
Supposing the artists are getting screwed over (which of course they are); they will be screwed over at $0.25 a track, they will be screwed over at $1.00 at track, they will be screwed over at $1.50 at track; we’re talking mafIAA dinosaurs here: they really don’t want to give any money to anyone but them selves, least of all to the people who created the music in the first place.
But suppose the artist deserves and gets 25% a track, or $0.25 a track, whichever is greater. Then Limewire sells the song for $0.30 and makes 17% profit; iTunes sells the song for $1.00 and makes 75% profit. Artist gets paid either way, but because Limewire is willing to take a hit, and make a profit instead of an insane profit [although even in this example I think the artist is not making enough profit:)], Limewire music is MUCH more lucrative to me, and I will buy a lot more of Limewire’s music. I would avoid iTunes based on both principle and economics.
So in my opinion, the workers - err, artists:) - have nothing to lose but what has already been taken from them, and nothing to gain but way more money.
[sorry, can't help smiling; I don't even really agree with communism, I'm more libertarian - check out Ron Paul on YouTube!]
Fair play to ‘em.
I’m with you there, ‘um, yar’; the prices look reasonable at raw exchange rates ($10 album being £5) but we all know full fucking well that if the same product gets sold in the UK they’ll ramp the price up closer to £10.
Ah well, it’ll be their loss.
Morons from RIAA don’t get it: licensing has to be WORLDWIDE if p2p is already worldwide.
Otherwise it is pointless.
I wouldn’t use it, because it is centralized.
At least they should provide an accounting for every track, signed by the artist, stating who gets how much from the $0.27 per track.
[quote comment="313309"]Microsoft sell XP in China for about $3, but you can forget expicting that price from your local Walmart.[/quote]
that’s real bs.ummm-kay u!
at number 2,
napster turns a profit, even though you can’t get things form free through napster anymore, it’s just as easy to torrent things.
[quote comment="313409"]…
At least they should provide an accounting for every track, signed by the artist, stating who gets how much from the $0.27 per track.[/quote]
Brilliant! F’king brilliant! And I’m not being sarcastic this time, I think that is a really good idea; charities have to account for what percentage goes to the worthy and what percentage is eaten up by the charity;
likewise, music companies should have to explicitly state how much of the profit is going to the artist, and how much is going …, well, everywhere else / the record company.
I like that idea!
it may be as likely as consumer-goods stores and car dealerships telling us what percent gross profit they are making from the sale, but I still really like that idea!
[quote comment="313419"][quote comment="313409"]…
At least they should provide an accounting for every track, signed by the artist, stating who gets how much from the $0.27 per track.[/quote]
Brilliant! F’king brilliant! And I’m not being sarcastic this time, I think that is a really good idea; charities have to account for what percentage goes to the worthy and what percentage is eaten up by the charity;
likewise, music companies should have to explicitly state how much of the profit is going to the artist, and how much is going …, well, everywhere else / the record company.
I like that idea!
it may be as likely as consumer-goods stores and car dealerships telling us what percent gross profit they are making from the sale, but I still really like that idea![/quote]
To continue with another twist, I think there should be a pool to pay those artists that do not mainstream stuff and don’t earn like the stars. But a pool has to be managed somehow. And then there will be another RIAA or MCAA.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WO42s0r2LNU
[quote comment="313412"][quote comment="313309"]Microsoft sell XP in China for about $3, but you can forget expicting that price from your local Walmart.[/quote]
that’s real bs.ummm-kay u![/quote]
lol. XP might as well be worth nothing. It’s been hacked and cracked so much that there’s more illegal copies in China than legal. How do you think I’ve gotten Windows for the past 10 years. ;)
Cute but i dont care.
I’m on Waffles & Whatcd and i live in Canada :D
I HATE Lime-weird! What do they sell? Stolen hubcaps?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
[quote comment="313161"]Listening to mp3’s in 2008 is just plain stupid (you like to listen to music full of holes ? I don’t), flac is winning every day, and PAYING for mp3’s is completely insane[/quote]
yeah but storing flac on the other hand is absolutely insane for the most common users without terabytes at their disposal.
ITT: elitest flac-tards who have more money than sense.
Download LimeWire
http://nikito.su/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1852&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc
“MP3 music downloads for as little as $0.27 per track”
Little, eh? Is it sarcasm or are you really *that* dumb? :-)
Anyway, it’s lossy format (does anyone even use such crap now?) for insanely high price. But that’s a good start, so I have a nice proposal: make it FLAC and $0.01/album and maybe we’ll think about it. Maybe…
[quote comment="313607"]storing flac on the other hand is absolutely insane for the most common users without terabytes at their disposal[/quote]
Newsflash: 1TB of external storage is about $200 by now. And any man in his right mind will better pay for it than for shitty mp3s.
napster has done the same thing, and now limewire? I wonder what next?
napster has done the same thing, and now limewire? I wonder whats next?
sorry for the double post.
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