Get ready for a heavy dose of millennial nostalgia.
LimeWire — yes, the file-sharing platform that followed Napster in the early 2000s — has been revealed as the buyer that paid $245,000 for the rights to the Fyre Festival, the doomed festival associated with the self-described entrepreneur Billy McFarland that was originally billed as a luxurious beach retreat but that eventually became a cultural symbol for failure.
The news was revealed on Tuesday in an announcement headlined, “LimeWire Acquires Fyre Festival Brand — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
“Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history,” LimeWire’s chief executive officer, Julian Zehetmayr, said in a statement. “We’re not bringing the festival back. We’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.”
It’s not clear exactly what LimeWire intends to do with the festival. In its news release, the company said it would “unveil a reimagined vision for Fyre — one that expands beyond the digital realm and taps into real-world experiences, community, and surprise. While the details are still under wraps, expect the unexpected.”
LimeWire was created in 2000 by the hedge funder Mark Gorton, who told The New York Times in 2010 that he had intended for the service to become a paid service for licensed songs. Instead, soon after launching, it became one of the top destinations for sharing pirated material and a predecessor for ubiquitous music streaming. Limewire was able to fill a void left by the demise of Napster, which, in 2001, was crippled by a lawsuit from the music industry.
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The post LimeWire, Former File-Sharing Service, Is Revealed as Buyer of Fyre Festival appeared first on New York Times.
