BTS, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift are the major music labels behind U2, Kendrick Lamar and U2.
Digital music sharing services will be back… in form. LimeWire, which announced in March that Napster would be returning in the form an NFT marketplace on Algorand in response to news of Napster’s return, today announced that it had signed Universal Music Group as a major label to its platform.
This global deal will allow artists who are signed to Universal Music Group or its imprint labels to release digital tokenized collectibles via the LimeWire marketplace. Universal has imprints such as Interscope Records and Def Jam Records, Motown Records. Geffen, Republic Records and Virgin Music.
The Universal Music Group roster includes major artists like Taylor Swift, Kendrick lamar, U2, BTS and Chris Stapleton. Although today’s deal does not necessarily mean that any of these artists will release NFTs via LimeWire, they will be able to.
LimeWire will relaunch as an NFT marketplace. It’s originally focused on music-related assets. This could be actual music, or artwork and collectibles of musicians. Paul Zehetmayr and Julian Zehetmayr, serial tech entrepreneurs, purchased the dormant peer to-peer music sharing site last year. announced their Web3 plans for March.
LimeWire announced in April that it raised $10.4 Million in a token sales led Kraken Ventures and Arrington Capital. Participation from other firms, such as Crypto.com Capital or Deadmau5’s 720Mau5 funds, was also possible.
The token sale announcement states that LimeWire will launch its “official launch campaign” later in the month, and then open the marketplace shortly thereafter. An NFT is a proof that you own a digital item. It can be used to represent digital artwork, music files, collectibles and many other goods.
Algorand, a proof of-stake Blockchain network, is being billed as a competitor to Ethereum which is the most popular platform for decentralized apps and NFTs. Algorand announced last week that Hivemind, a Web3 investment firm, had acquired Napster, a streaming music service, which was previously peer-to-peer. They plan to launch a Web3 music portal.
Universal is not the first to enter the Web3 space. UMG’s 10 :22 PM label had announced last November the launch of Kingship. This virtual band, inspired by Gorillaz, is based on a series Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. The band will also perform in metaverse realms and sell its own NFTs.
In January, Warner Music Group and metaverse game the Sandbox formed a partnership. The label, which includes artists such as Lizzo and Ed Sheeran will create virtual land within The Sandbox’s world and host concerts there.
