+1 Records represents some of the most interesting indie bands. Some of the artists on their labels include Johnossi, The Morning Benders, Oh No! Oh My!, Monsters Are Waiting, The Boy Least Likely To, Future Sounds, Kate Nash, Trainwreck Riders, Illinois, The Heavy, The Kooks, Jamie T., The Phoenix Foundation, Stellastarr, Ambulance Ltd, Diesel-U-Music, Editors, Two Gallants, and the US Air Guitar Association.
Nat Hays, Chairman of the Brooklyn-based indie record company decided to enlist two ways to distribute his label’s music. This includes Apple iTunes and Lime Wire. “I consider Lime Wire a really important player in what we are trying to do,” stated Hays. However, the RIAA blames Lime Wire for a decline in sales for the music industry. Lime Wire has 70 million users and the RIAA wants to put the file sharing software out of commission.
Like Napster, Lime Wire wants to become more of a legitimate and legal music distribution entity.
“We’d love to work with the entire music industry,” stated Lime Wire CEO George Searle. “I think there are some people in the majors who see the potential of Lime Wire.” Lime Wire has even offered Universal, Warner Music, EMI, and Sony to create a music search engine which would lead Lime Wire users into buying music.
MySpace was caught in a legal battle with record labels as well. Unauthorized copies of music was distributed on social network profiles. But now that MySpace Music has launched, the record labels have calmed down. They can still receive royalties via music profiles through MySpace.
The ball is now in the court of the music labels. Either they can spend millions of dollars fighting against anti-piracy software or they can choose to embrace the future and partner with these companies. If MySpace can fight a legal battle and then partner with the labels, so can Lime Wire.
