[Chongo]

Full article here:From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally - Times Online

From The Times
January 28, 2008
From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally
Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent, in Cannes

After a decade fighting to stop illegal file-sharing, the music industry will give fans today what they have always wanted: an unlimited supply of free and legal songs.

With CD sales in free fall and legal downloads yet to fill the gap, the music industry has reluctantly embraced the file-sharing technology that threatened to destroy it. Qtrax, a digital service announced today, promises a catalogue of more than 25 million songs that users can download to keep, free and with no limit on the number of tracks.

The service has been endorsed by the very same record companies - including EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music – that have chased file-sharers through the courts in a doomed attempt to prevent piracy. The gamble is that fans will put up with a limited amount of advertising around the Qtrax website’s jukebox in return for authorised use of almost every song available.

Full article here:The service will use the “peer-to-peer” network, which contains not just hit songs but rarities and live tracks from the world’s leading artists.

Nor is a lack of compatibility with the iPod player expected to put fans off. Apple is unlikely to allow tracks downloaded from its rival to be compatible with iPods, but, while the iPod is the most popular music player, it has not succeeded in dominating the market: sales of the iPod account for 50 million out of 130 million total digital player sales. Qtrax has also spoken of an “iPod solution”, to be announced in April.

Qtrax files contain Digital Rights Management software, allowing the company to see how many times a song has been downloaded and played. Artists, record companies and publishers will be paid in proportion to the popularity of their music, while also taking a cut of advertising revenues.

The Qtrax team, which spent five years working on the system, promised a “game-changing” intervention in the declining recorded music market when the service was presented at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes.

Mac betaavailable March 18
Qtrax

[zro]

Sounds great. So why are my Spidey senses tingling?

[Spliffdaddy]

This can't be good for iTunes music store. In fact, it could be really bad.

25 million titles. which could be easily converted to mp3 format - although not legally - to circumvent the DRM restrictions.

Suddenly, 99 cents sounds expensive for a song.

[Cellery]

This just came across the AP wire, I'm a little wary...

Qtrax file-sharing service offers free music downloads; Warner Music denies giving permission

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A revamped online file-sharing service that promised to offer unlimited, free music downloads from all the major record labels hit an apparent snag Sunday after one denied it had given the service permission.

Qtrax touted in a press release Sunday morning that it was the first Internet file-swapping service to be “fully embraced by the music industry,” and boasted it would carry up to 30 million tracks from “all the major labels.”
New York-based Warner Music undermined that claim, declaring in a statement that it “has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service.”

Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC later confirmed they did not have licensing deals in place with Qtrax, noting discussions were still ongoing. A call to Sony BMG Music Entertainment was not immediately returned.

[ctt1wbw]

Sounds like an infestation of spyware and spam to me. Nothing costs nothing these days.

[Big Mac]

Sounds highly dubious.

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw 

Sounds like an infestation of spyware and spam to me. Nothing costs nothing these days.

True that.

[::maroma::]

Yeah I'm gonna have to join the skeptical crowd on this one. There is absolutely zero reason I should trust the music industry, especially when they are claiming to be giving away that which they fought so hard to charge for just yesterday.

[olePigeon]

All the music is ad supported. You listen to commercials before you get to listen to your tunes.

[mrtew]

The guy that sits next to me told me that Warner denies having an agreement with them.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

All the music is ad supported. You listen to commercials before you get to listen to your tunes.

Sounds worse than radio.

[Doofy]

If true, this will kill independents.

[Kerrigan]

The Thunderer might be a dignified paper, but they do a lot of sloppy reporting from time to time.

[Mastrap]

I just can't see the revenue generated from ads being anywhere near enough to cover the costs of this. I might of course be wrong, but this sounds like some sort of 1998 business model.

"Where's your revenue stream then?"

"Uh. Yes, well. Ads, I guess. We were concentrating on building traffic first."

[turtle777]

Well, this sounds too good to be true.

And as we all know, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
So I join the sceptical crowd here

-t

[mrtew]

Free music downloads site in chaos as record giants pull out| News | This is London

[turtle777]

Why am I not shocked.

This seems like a giant publicity stunt to me...

-t