LimeWire launched its own music store last Monday. But in this music store don’t expect to find your latest pop 40 hits or something that would rival iTunes’ catalog. This music store will have is 256 kb/sec encoded MP3s, no DRM, with full interoperability with any of your electronic gadgets. Whether you would have it with your Palm Pilot’s MP3 player, or your Pocket PC, an iPod, or your desktop computer, the tracks you would be purchasing from LimeWire’s store will work just fine.
But there are things that makes this music store somewhat different from other music stores. First, all the music is from independent artists. You won’t find your superstars here, just unknown independent artists trying it out in the open. Also, the pricing plan is obviously designed to match with the way the online world thinks. The are many payment packages: the 99 cent pay as you go option, and if the end user decides to pay a monthly rate of about $20, he or she can then purchase 75 songs for 27 cents a download which is much cheaper than what most would expect of online music stores.
Obviously, the music store will be integrated into the LimeWire client. It’s not known if LimeWire plans to expand their lineup to include mainstream acts.
It seems that LimeWire is contradicting itself, while it maintains its commitment to providing a free service it opens a store.
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