Kazaa to rise from ashes as subscription music service

By Greg Sandoval on 20 July 2009, 9:59am

Kazaa, one of the most recognisable brands in the history of illegal downloading, is due to officially resurface, perhaps as early as next week, sources close to the company have told CNET UK sister site CNET News. This time, however, the name Kazaa will be associated with a legal music service.

Altnet and parent company Brilliant Digital Entertainment have attached the Kazaa brand to a subscription service that will offer songs and ringtones from all four of the major recording companies. For the past few months, a beta version has been available.

The site will open with over 1m tracks. According to the blog TorrentFreak, the new Kazaa will offer unlimited downloads for $20 (£12) a month.

Kazaa was developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and rose to prominence following the first wave of peer-to-peer networks. The courts effectively shut the company down when it was ordered to prevent users from committing copyright violations.

Kazaa joins the growing number of former rogue file-sharing applications and services whose names are now being used for legal operations.

First came Napster, and a Swedish software company recently revealed that it plans to relaunch BitTorrent tracking site the Pirate Bay as a pay service.

What hasn't been proven yet is whether any of the once-outlaw brands can be used to make money legally.