Kazaa to become hottest download
By hitting that total, Kazaa would surpass the popular ICQ instant messaging program, Sharman said.
Kazaa's growing popularity comes at a crucial time for the music industry as it battles file-swapping services in court and tries to develop commercially viable online music services.
As of late Thursday, the Kazaa Media Desktop application--a file-sharing software that has drawn the wrath of the music industry by enabling its users to swap songs for free--had been downloaded 229,150,955 times, as measured by Download.com, which is owned by CNET Networks, publisher of ZDNet News.
Sharman said by midday Friday it expected Kazaa to top the record set by ICQ. As of Thursday, ICQ has been downloaded 229,363,307 times, according to Download.com.
A Sharman representative said Kazaa has been receiving an average of 366,000 downloads per day, whereas the ICQ application has been receiving an average of 50,000 downloads per day, as measured by Download.com.
This week, media software maker Roxio bought struggling online service Pressplay, launched by Vivendi Universal and Sony. Apple Computer recently launched its own online music service, which analysts say has been a standout success in the struggling sector.
Record labels suffered a setback in April when a federal judge ruled that song-swap networks Grokster and Morpheus should not be shut because they do not control what is traded on them.
Kazaa, which is involved in a separate lawsuit with the recording industry, also distributes licensed files, including music, movies, games and software through a partnership with a company called Altnet.
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