According to an article today on Ars Technica, well known peer-to-peer company LimeWire L.L.C. has plans to open a new LEGAL music downloading website. While the music will obviously not be free to download, it will come in everyone’s favorite format, DRM-Free MP3. While this may still be a turn off to those seeking to get their music for free, it is atleast a step up from some of the competition who still offer music downloads as protected WMA files. As noted by Ars Technica, so far only two music distributors have signed on with LimeWire; IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions. One would have to wonder if these two distributors alone even own enough content to make this venture worth while. With LimeWire’s history of illegal file sharing, it could make it tough for them to draw other sponsors. No information regarding song pricing has been released at this point.
LimeWire is not the first to take steps towards offering DRM-Free music downloads. Just a few months ago, Amazon.com made news when it was announced that they may also be working on a web based DRM-Free music service.
What is your opinion of DRM-Free music downloads? Would you be more inclined to purchase legal music if it did not contain DRM protection? It would seem to me that users of LimeWire’s current desktop P2P software would be reluctant to suddenly start paying to download music, regardless of it’s lack of DRM protection. Furthermore, it may be hard for LimeWire to draw back old users who have since been scared off by the over abundance of viruses and spyware that can be found on their desktop P2P software.
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