January 27, 2008

Free (legal) P2P Music Downloads? Told You So.

Michael Arrington

106 comments »

I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but in case you haven’t heard: The era of paid music downloads is coming to an end (despite the fact that online sales are growing).

Qtrax, which has signed all four major labels (EMI, SonyBMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group), launched yesterday with 25 million songs (compared to around 3 m for Amazon and 6 m for iTunes). Note: See update below.

It isn’t pretty - the downloaded songs are not compatible with iPods and have to be played via a proprietary player built on the Songbird platform. Ads are displayed during playback, even on music devices. For now the service is Windows only, so Mac users are left out. And right now the service is down completely from all the attention it’s getting.

For most people, BitTorrent and the music search engines are all they need for their illegal-but-highly-convenient music needs. Any additional hurdles means not a ton of usage. And since services like Imeem and Last.fm provide free on demand streaming music with ads, there is already real competition out there for Qtrax.

But the trend is clear - labels have given up on DRM completely and are willing to experiment with ad supported free downloads. Once they give up on the ad supported part of the model and just realize that recorded music is nothing more than marketing collateral for other revenue streams like live performances, we’ll have gotten somewhere. But my guess is that one of the labels has to go out of business first for that to happen.

Update: based on emails we’re getting, it sounds like Qtrax hasn’t actually signed all four labels - at least one or two remain on the sidelines. Silicon Alley Insider says three of the four labels have confirmed that they AREN’T in, making Qtrax look like a bit of a joke right now (I won’t use the word “fraud” until this all sorts itself out and I’ve had a chance to talk directly to the company).

Qtrax

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Sphere It

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 10:58 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

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February 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 am

Free (legal) P2P Music Downloads? Told You So.-Music Lyrics Download

February 24th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

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March 19th, 2008 at 10:15 am

Free (legal) P2P Music Downloads? Told You So.-Download Music Free

March 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am

January 29, 2008 | TechTV Update

March 31st, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Comments

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Yasser

January 27th, 2008 at 11:01 am

This is somewhat of a win for users. But I still look forward to downloading free legal music that works on any player and I could put it on my ipod. But lets keep hope a live….
p2p

January 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am

The music WILL be compatible with Ipods within a month. This has been in the works and will be huge.
Dave Diehl

January 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am

Record? What’s a record?
ZOMGPWN!

January 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am

Worse that spiralfrog and SITE IS DOWN! Anonymous strikes again.

So many people reporting on Qtrax and it’s not even up.

TOO FUNNY.

Epic phailure
Edoardo

January 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am

Idea is good… will see were they are going to put the ads… in the middle of the song?
Everett

January 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am

It’s temporarily down
CasaMan

January 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am

Why do these guys think that i have the need to p2p download songs..
What is the added value of p2p?? Songs are so small they can be streamed even on very small bandwidth..

The only reason people use p2p to download music is because they can get it for free or they can get rare content.. Not because p2p is such a superior platform for downloading music.. These guys are stupid..
ZOMGPWN!

January 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am

http://www.gratista.com

go in peace, young padawan
CasaMan

January 27th, 2008 at 11:34 am

I imagine the benefit is for them - as always, keeping costs down I suppose .. I don’t think they believe P2P is better for the end user either.
Yasser

January 27th, 2008 at 11:35 am

@CasaMan: because p2p is a great way of saving bandwidth if you have thousands of people downloading albums or songs.
MP3 spyware

January 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am

Legal… hmm… What about RIAA?
Morgan

January 27th, 2008 at 11:41 am

I still don’t get it at all. Just because there are some problems in the industry doesn’t mean they all just need to ‘realize’ that you’re right. Your model may work for some bands, and that’s fine, but I would guess at any given point in time the majority of bands are not performing live, and probably couldn’t sell a t-shirt to save their life– but somehow because it works for a few people or traditional sales have slowed, TC and Techdirt think they just have the whole answer to be applied across the board. It’s nothing remotely close to evidence that recorded music is essentially unsaleable. It just means there are all kinds of different ways to distribute and make money off of good music.

Broken record is right. I often wish some of the backseat drivers on this issue would start a label or a band and reap the fruits of the ideas they continually espouse as though they are a done deal.
User447

January 27th, 2008 at 11:43 am

I bet this will work just as well as the banner supported NetZero vs Cable and ADSL.
Chuck

January 27th, 2008 at 11:45 am

You ARE sounding like a broken record, Michael. And you’re still dreaming.

No quality musicians are going to give away their music for free. Of coruse, they’ll experiment with various monetization models…but you have no right to expect something of value for free.

Otherwise, I can take all your TC junk and republish it verbatim and you won’t come after me, right? Because, after all…”Information needs to be free! Find a different business model! Sell autographed pictures or something!”

You’re living in a dreamland. Quality is quality. Value is value. And it’s a fool’s errand to keep trying to pretend it’s not. Honor that which of value by paying for it.
J Banner

January 27th, 2008 at 11:46 am

Michael - It may be a little premature to suggest that Qtrax has “launched.” A friend of mine is at the Midem conference in France, and Qtrax’s “launch” has again been delayed, until midnight tonight — after a big run-up to its allegedly star-studded press conference (apparently they didn’t show up, either). At the press conference, somebody tried to ask about the DRM with the service - and he had the microphone taken away from him! Too good to be true? Hmm…
CasaMan

January 27th, 2008 at 11:51 am

So in order to “keep the cost down” by saving BW they handicap themselves by using P2P.. I don’t see how they could win the fight against ad-supported free streaming/download sites.. They are saving like $0.0008 per song on BW.. That’s 8 cent CPM! I say deadpool for Qtrax..
CasaMan

January 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am

Correction 80 cents.. but still..
Adam Posey

January 27th, 2008 at 11:54 am

Chuck, I’m extremely disappointed by your opinion. Things of “value” are given away for free every single day. There are very basic rules of supply and demand that Music companies are used to dealing with. These rules DO NOT translate to digital content very well at all because once something is made digital the supply is effectively infinite.

The bands will be perfectly able to sustain themselves AND give the music away, thanks to technology. Sponsored albums, merchandise sales, and even online concerts (http://web2-oh.blogspot.com/2008/01/set-content-free.html). Conforming to a broken standard for the sake of adding “value” is simply misinformed and wrong.

Michael, I think you also need to post a correction about DRM. The music from that service is incredibly DRM-laden according to several reports.
Adam Posey

January 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am

Oh, and Chuck, there are a lot of differences between text and audio, and YES you should absolutely be able to reproduce what he says. But the difference with music is you almost have no choice but to offer a citation (Band-song-album, you know). I’m sure if you offered a citation for Michael’s posts he wouldn’t have a problem with it.
anon

January 27th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

Who is John Galt?
Bryan Brannigan

January 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

@2: You’re wrong. It won’t be available for iPod in a month. It won’t even be available for Mac until late March. Apple won’t open up the iPod for this crap. And if QTrax wanted to dump plain MP3s on to the iPod, then they would destroy there own business model since the user won’t be staring at ads while it plays. Not to mention that an ad supported model won’t work anyway because who looks at their player while playing music?
Sylvain

January 27th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Multitrack audio masters can only be sold, this is the next step after DRM-free, and you can of course remix the song but even sell it…
http://www.corvaisier.fr/2008/.....tal-music/
steve

January 27th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

I don’t mean to single out TC here. This analysis is far better than the other crap about QTrax on the web right now. However, how do I get my press release on every major blog? Seriously, I’d like to know. Sure this is an interesting idea, but no one has used this service and can comment on how ugly it really is.
Nascar

January 27th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

Yay for Qtrax and Amazon getting these music deals. Can we bring back Napster with a bang?
Joe

January 27th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Chuck and Morgan are right.

I think Michael himself has complained about sites copying TC’s content directly and reposting it. The argument doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny if you apply to any digitally reproducable content. Are we supposed to go see live performances of movies? Will publishers only get paid for signed copies of their books? Who’s going to watch ad supported TV if they can download a free version without commercials?

I think the recent success of In Rainbows as a physical purchase is a sign that even if the music was offered for free cunsumers would still prefer to own physical representation. History also reflects this. Remember when VHS movies were sold for the first time - everybody was shocked at their success when you could buy a movie in a store that was also being shown in network TV at the same time. Why wouldn’t you just record the movie from TV rather than buy it from a store?

The same applies to music. There will always be a market for a physical purchase with loose ownership rights.
Rex Dixon

January 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

Yes and No Mike. It would work for artists that are willing to go on tour, but for the ones that just want to write music and play every now and again? Nope, there has to be some sort of revenue model in putting music out.

Not only that, even if you can say - anyone can record music, and they can these days with the way DAW’s have evolved, etc… to do it correctly, there is a lot of time and money involved in recording just one song. And if you have it professionally done because you just like to write and play music, but think recording it all is a hassle - than welcome to the world of recording studios, or hiring a professional engineer/producer.

Money that the artist has to recoup somehow. In this day and age, there are many that don’t want to go on the road and tour. Why? I dunno, I always personally found playing gigs was more fun than recording (pain in the a$$). But that’s me.

Rex
NotABug

January 27th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

QTrax = Vaporware for the last 2 years.

All the efforts for nothing, why don’t they just release the mp3s with ads in the front, and screw DRM, it’d work anywhere. I bet other p2p networks would join the initiative if RIAA would open a negotiation table.

Why make money on a sale when you can make money on every play?

Just put a short ad at the beginning of every mp3 shared, you can even target what to stick in the mp3 as its being downloaded based on time, GMT, IP, it’s just plain dumb to do, the sponsored content model works fine for TV why not for on demand music…

And to comment #13, this is the RIAA’s P2P effort dude, read.

It’s also funny how this morning the site said they were down due to overwhelming demand, how stupid, they’re funded with millions of dollars, and sites run by regular Joe’s like FrostWire can take all the demand in the world with the effort of an organized community and no funding to distribute their p2p app. Maybe they’re client isn’t really P2P
WebSideVentures

January 27th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

They must be charging a pretty high CPM to be able to pay the artists with ad revenue.
mark

January 27th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

Not compatible with ipods (and other mp3 players) and delivered on a proprietary platform. How much different is that from DRM?
Erik

January 27th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Hey Michael - I just bought opentechcrunch.com. I’m assuming it’s cool if I just repost all your content there without compensation, and of course without all those lame ads you have and other stuff I don’t like? I mean, once you give up on the ad supported part of the model and just realize that written text is nothing more than marketing collateral for other revenue streams like conferences, we’ll have gotten somewhere. Let me know. Thanks!
Vash

January 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Golly ad supported music.. this is sounding like something that the recording industry freaked out about a long time ago, but eventually broke to.. Radio lol
Niklas

January 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

Heard of Spotify? They have been in beta for a long time… and have a really good service.
Neil Kelty

January 27th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Honestly, I’d rather pay 99 cents to have no ads.
TIme Warner

January 27th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Im all for it and all….

But it also begs the question if the Internet has devalued music then all other digital content is devalued too!

Hey, it’s a good thing and I canceled Cable TV and just use the net to get my content! Albeit, economically as more do this our ISP bills will go up.

Time Warners capping bandwidth could be a good thing, as it should create a legal content Internet utopia(all copyrighted content is paid thru our bills). I always wanted A LA Carte cable..now I have it on the cheap - Im thinking not for too long though!
Sam

January 27th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

“the downloaded songs are not compatible with iPods and have to be played via a proprietary player built on the Songbird platform ….. labels have given up on DRM completely”

Ummm…. how is that *not* DRM, Michael? If I can’t play the songs anywhere I want, I don’t own them. The songs’ rights are being managed, digitally.

I’ll continue to pay for unrestricted music.
PXLated

January 27th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

Way too simplistic Mike…Morgan (#12) hits it.
And, I do agree with the others that if it’s good for music, it should be good for you also. Can’t wait to visit opentechcrunch.com (is it up yet?) (have you been sued by Arrington yet?)
jccalhoun

January 27th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

This isn’t the first legal p2p by any means. I was a part of the beta for Peer Impact a couple years ago which was legal p2p but it was only WMA Plays for Sure stuff. They seemed to have been ahead of their time since they disappeared.
Bruce Warila

January 27th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

“launched yesterday with 25 million songs (compared to around 3 m for Amazon and 6 m for iTunes)”

I can’t even find what I want in my own iTunes library. Anyone honking about 25 million as a unique selling proposition is doomed to fail.
panefsky

January 27th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

the whole thing with ads is not nice.
steve jobs said something about open standards: all songs on alla players.
Where is that?
AnonTroll

January 27th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Morgan nails it. Not all musicians tour, I guess they should just starve in the streets, right Michael?

Erik, when you do opentechcrunch.com could you please filter out Duncan’s posts? Thanks.
itsfridaymoanin

January 27th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

“recorded music is nothing more than marketing collateral for other revenue streams like live performances” - well said, I’ve been trying to get people to recognize this for years. I give credit to the argument that studio recording is another medium for the art; a “perfect” version of a song with premium sound quality is valuable, but it’s just gotten out of control within the last couple decades. You would think that with the development of cheap digital recording studios would come cheaper music, but the big guys with all the money just wouldn’t give up their cash cow like that. Even if Qtrax isn’t the final solution, it’s a step in the right direction, IMHO.
rosey grier

January 27th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

looks like qtrax doesn’t have deals in place with at least 2 of the 4 major labels; did they mis-speak or deliberately mislead…?

http://www.alleyinsider.com/20.....x-wmg.html
ZOMGPWN!

January 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

rosey, nice catch. i don’t know what’s worse… NOT having a deal in place with Uniglobal or letting your Warner deal expire! WTH?

at least now we know why it’s not up yet

announcing a launch date for something this big and then not meeting it is like shooting yourself in the foot and then jumping into a shark tank
Gove Luru

January 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I don´t sell music! I sell shirts!

It´s a win for the users!
Shakir Razak

January 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Dear Mike,

Can you please confirm whether or not the content on the *Crunch Blog network are copyrighted, and by who.

Thanks in advance.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak
Jurado

January 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

The King is Dead, Long live the King….
Jahbuh

January 27th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

This is years too late; the industry should have launched an ad driven service right after Napster went down. But they didn’t because they are money grubbing and wanted to continue milking of customers. People who are downloading music illegally are not going to see the light all of a sudden and start listening to music through an ad generated program. What the industry needs to do they are unwilling to and that is scrap their business model, layoff more than half of their employees and rebuild with a smaller organization with creative marketing. If not say goodbye to the major record labels in 10 years. Another alternative is to focus more on music videos which right now is just a side project for the industry. Video is easier to encrypt and with MP3 devices now all packing screens customers are more interested in the combination of listening and viewing instead of just listening by itself. Artist will have to make the majority of their money the old fashion way by touring.
Roman

January 27th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

If you’re interested you can check out how much artists are earning in concert sales here:
http://omg.yahoo.com/musics-bi...../news/5939

for example: the Police reunion tour made $133 million, and only around $9 million in album sales… the concerts is where the real money is, hence artists don’t complain much about “piracy”.
Bryan Brannigan

January 27th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

Roman: When you say “made $133 million” and “$9 million in album sales” you are talking revenue. I assure you, it’s a hell of a lot more expensive to put on a tour then it is to produce CDs — venue, travel, lodging, roadies, food, etc. The right numbers to be comparing would be profit.. good luck getting those.
Russ

January 27th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

Its one thing to develop viable revenue streams through banner ads for blogs and even internet service where costs are relatively “capped” and you can develop trend forecasts. You can’t use the radio metaphor as there is a limited number of stations in a market and they rarely compete directly causing a defined marketplace for advertisers. The web will not support the CPM levels you need to offer free Music. Further the Radio stations pay a much smaller fee per play.

Music is fundamentally different than a blog or news site, there is the “VC” like component where hits support the whole industry from a development perspective. Many “tours” have financial problems of their own and can’t support the use of music as collateral.

Once we accept the concept of music being “free” we will severely limit the possibility of the long tail of music, something we have enjoyed for a long time (even if we didn’t realize it) because the core business model will be destroyed. We may end up with just the “American Idols” and Justin Timberlakes unless we develop a new model that supports both consumers desire for less expensive use anywhere music and the industry itself.
福泉

January 27th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

免费的音乐时代即将来临！
iHero

January 27th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

Ads with my music ??????????????????????
Forget it.
I’ll happily pay 99 cents per song that is multi platform compatible and ad free.

This sounds like a really stupid initiative.
Tsarin

January 27th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

I think people will support a product without ads. Having an ad supported media product puts the distributor at odds with the interest of the consumer regarding quality. The distributor gets *more* money when they have pages and pages of crap to wade through while looking for what you like. Quality is where the juice is.
UltimateQuiz

January 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

Wow! Although it has ads, it is a great iniciative and a huge step forward to stop illegal downloads!

I’m very surprised to see that the major labels joined it!
Silliness

January 27th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

@Russ, “We may end up with just the “American Idols” and Justin Timberlakes…”
Uh? What? How do you think these folks were able to “make it”? I’ll end the suspense, the big labels made them happen. With these new distribution/ revenue models, they will not make it.

Anyone making claims against TC for these views and talking about other sites reproducing TC content just hasn’t looked around at all. There are a large number of sites that reproduce TC content without attribution at all (check out ’sphere it’ and you will see).

Just because a band does not want to tour, does not mean people will buy their music (”Oh, you dont want to tour? I better buy this instead of using bitorrent”)
Adam

January 27th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I see this as an amazing breakthrough, not just for the average music consumer, but the artist as well.

It’s a common misconception that the artist get’s that whole 99 cents (average price) for a purchased song from popular mediums such as Apple’s iTunes or Amazon’s service.
This, if successful, will ensure that we can enjoy music for free and have a peace of mind knowing that the Artist is getting their fair share of the pie.
And I am so glad, and equally shocked, that the Big Wigs of the record industry are on-board for this amazing venture.

On a second note, even if the “whole music industry” collapses,
I, as a musician, know that other musicians will find ways to explore their artistic cavities and produce the same comforting sounds that they have.
This service just pushes a bit further in the right direction of the freedom of creativity.

And @Russ,
I am going to disagree with your idealized model of how the music industry should and is run. To keep it simple, before the was a record label or even an industry of music, there was in it self: Music. The sound of binding creativity and passion. Money shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, but we are know slowly realizing it and are correcting this situation as consumers who no longer want the capitalistic Music Industry to have a trumping control over music.
Tech For Novices

January 27th, 2008 at 7:39 pm

See this Yahoo AP news article 21 mins ago which is reproduced by us and have a laugh. There is a screenshot too…..
hyokon

January 27th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

As a consumer I like music to be free or very cheap. But I am concerned. If all music are free, how can musicians make a living? I am not sure advertising or live performance will work fairly (if at all) for many musicians. The old CD sales was at least fair, though it had a lot of inefficiency. We need to think hard to make a better world for everyone.
Paul Westerberg

January 27th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

I hate music…it’s got too many notes.
vanguardsf.net

January 27th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

they will never take over apple iTunes

john, owner
vanguardsf.net
gregory

January 27th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

musicians made their living

by wandering, bards, minstrels, drama teams, they are in all cultures worldwide

by patronage, symphonies, court musicians, also in all cultures

when tech came and allowed capturing sound and playing it back later distribution was invented, and naturally control of this resource made some winners

but music is music, we all do it because we love to do it, that is enough. living comes from something else
sandeep

January 27th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

it will be great
associated press

January 27th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

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.

Justin Kazmark, a spokesman for New York-based Qtrax, declined to comment late Sunday.

Qtrax had been scheduled to make its online debut on Monday, a day after its splashy coming-out party at the annual Midem music business conference in Cannes, France.
John

January 27th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

READ ABOVE!!! It’s NOT legal!!! At least not yet.
ZOMGPWN!

January 27th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

agree Paul

never heaven sent
Russel

January 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

What the hell, its past midnight EST and I dont see a download link. Of course right at this second the sight is not responding. I hope I dont DDOS it because of how much I am holding CTRL and clicking Refresh
Josh

January 27th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

Yeah, I’ve been waiting also … guess it’s not going to happen tonight!
CasaMan

January 27th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

They’ve just made their download page blank … looks like a total no-go.
Josh

January 27th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

CasaMan - I’ve had that happen to me a couple times. They haven’t made any changes to the download page; it’s just that the server is getting hit so hard that the load causes weird page loads.
other

January 27th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

“making Qtrax look like a bit of a joke right now”

lol, I think you mean making YOU look like a bit of a joke right now. “Free (legal) P2P Music Downloads? Told You So.” LOL, gotta love arrogance with no basis.
Jake

January 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

Nearly 1:00 AM EST and still no download

its says available mid night on the download page… Hmmm maybe 12am isnt mid night anymore…?
Gubatron

January 27th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

Vaporware, Serviceware
1am still no download available.

I’m starting to think they’re marketing it as a p2p service but it will be seeding content so much for such a long time, that they can’t get it to run.

who knows if the first months it will be centralized, no real p2p happening.
TurnItUpMedia.com

January 27th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

Hello Everyone! My name is William Fleming and I am the President and Founder of TurnItUp Media.

While many companies have tapped the ad-supported music model, we at TurnItUp Media have a different philosophy. How about a 100% DRM-Free Ad-based Music Service? The music you download is paid for by the advertisers, so after you watch the ad your part is finished. Okay, so if you “want”, you can click on the advertiser’s link to get discounts and coupons for their products, but that is up to you!

With the music download phase of its Beta Test expected to launch before the end of the 1st quarter (2008), the ad-based music distributor, TurnItUp Media, is coming to the market with a respectable portfolio of over 2.4 million songs and counting — all of which are 100% DRM-FREE.

Why use any system that restricts your use of music with DRM?

Join the TurnItUp Media Revolution!

We are currently running our first phase of the beta test which enables users to test the profile system.

Come check us out at http://www.TurnItUpMedia.com.
Russ

January 27th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

@56 - Adam, my view of music isn’t idealized, unfortunately money drives the industry, destroying the business model won’t help music it will hurt it.
Now, is there an opportunity to create a new model? Sure, but simply trying ads is not a model. It needs to be worked end to end.

Anyone thinking this will help the musician or our access to quality content is nuts. If this and other models are the path to a cohesive model, then so be it.
Richard

January 28th, 2008 at 1:35 am

Am I the only one to whom the above displayed QTrax logo looks a lot like the poster for a 70s sci-fi flick about some mind-control cult who plans to take over the world?

I hope not.
heddy

January 28th, 2008 at 2:30 am

Gosh, look at that. Arrington posted something without doing basic journalistic fact-checking, spouting off on crap about which he knows nothing and is wrong. Who’d of thunk it?
Matt_

January 28th, 2008 at 3:23 am

I Knew this was too good to be true maybe Qtrax Lawyers got them to rethink their flawed strategy of filtering Gnutella and launching without agreements from 3 of the major labels .

Qtrax might become the laughing stock of the industry today and watch their stock price crash later today .
Michael Arrington

January 28th, 2008 at 3:30 am

heddy - happens all the time, the key is that we update quickly. In this case, it looks like the company did some major misleading/lying.
LESTAT

January 28th, 2008 at 5:21 am

MARDITOS GRINGOS ESTUPIDOS QUE SE CREEN QUE TODO EL MUDNO ES DE USTEDES NO ASI NO ES TAMBIEN DEBE SER COMPARTIDO LAS COSAS PERO NO TODO ES EN INGLES APRENDAN ESPAÑOL O CHINO QUE SU IDIIOMA SE IRA A LA MIERDA.
Shakir Razak

January 28th, 2008 at 6:26 am

Silliness,

yes, but what are Michael’s views about the exercise of rights currently legally ascribed to him (his company).

Michael?

As for QTrax, they seem to be in full-launch/lie mode with the PR they’re getting in the UK by non-tech-savvy (i.e. completely ignorant) hacks in the mainstream media.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak
grammarnazi

January 28th, 2008 at 7:25 am

confused about the download… it says itll be available at Midnight EST… but lists no date? sketchy….
InfoBugger

January 28th, 2008 at 7:51 am

QTrax is own by a company called Brilliant Technologies Corp (BLLN.PK)
gride

January 28th, 2008 at 8:19 am

I had high hopes for QTrax, but it looks like they aren’t going anywhere soon. There is a new company coming out called turnitupmedia (turnitupmedia.com) that claims to provide free music, 100% drm-free with apparantly close to 3 million songs. Well have to wait and see
Matt_

January 28th, 2008 at 8:31 am

I got Invited to download the Qtrax client this morning and its Songbird with some Qtrax themed plugins they could have done this as a Browser plugin to be honest .

You can download the client from here

http://qtrax-cdod-r1.vitalstre.....s-i686.exe

And you don’t need an Invite to register
steve

January 28th, 2008 at 9:06 am

Michael,

amazing amount of news today. the team has really been cranking out the articles.

can you give us some insight into the PR world, and tell us how TC and every other blog and major newspapers like the LAT all published on this? who is QTrax’s public relations firm and what do you guys all owe them?

thanks!
steve

January 28th, 2008 at 9:13 am

wow. just checked techmeme. QTrax was in The Times - the freakin’ Times - the real one. Seriously, the press coverage is unreal. How did it happen? How did a bazillion blogs and stacks of major newspapers all write the same stuff about this? That’s the real story here.
Sylvain

January 28th, 2008 at 9:23 am

Techcrunch discover the marketing bullshit from music start-up companies. Wow. Told you so.
Jack

January 28th, 2008 at 9:31 am

on the subject of being a professional musician..

The problem with finding alterantive ways of earning money as an artist is that everybody simply can´t be on tour all the time, (and at the same time as everybody else). Some artists arent comfortable on the stage (but are supercreative in the studio) and others make music that isn suited for live performing. I don´t want commercial success restricted to those who are able, willing and good at performing live. And selling T-shirts…
margueron

January 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am

That’s right, musicians won’t be paid. Next will come movies, and then books as online reading gets easier. And where will the writers go for their “alternative revenue streams?” Oh but right, why do people need books when they can Twitter their days away?

This is very bad news for western civilization. It’s a massive and looming tragedy of the commons that will destroy our creative industries. Oh, but you’re a tech guy in the South Bay who could really give a crap? Well guess what, software is information too. It should all be free, right? And the ads served up on your blog are information too, so maybe I can hijack them and serve my own ads on your blog, and that’d be fine, right? No? Your dear property rights you say? But it’s not property, it’s information!

I know the humanities are out of vogue, but maybe you guys have read a little about the bad old days before copyright protection?
justjess

January 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am

I wonder if companies research the words they’re going to use as their official site name. MocoSpace caused me to think about this. The Spanish word for snot is moco, the o’s are long. Reminds me of when General Motors introduced the Nova to Mexico. In Spanish Nova means, “Won’t go”.
Statick

January 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

sorry if it’s been mentioned already, i’m not going to read all 90 comments above.

but this : “Once they give up on the ad supported part of the model and just realize that recorded music is nothing more than marketing collateral for other revenue streams like live performances, we’ll have gotten somewhere.” really upset me

i earn my living partially by performing live, and partially from tech’ing live shows for other bands. artists and labels together lose a fortune from live performances. business-wise, a show has done amazingly if it so much as breaks even. making any real profit is totally unheard of. at any stage of the game, whether you’re U2 packing an arena or some teenagers packing the local punk dive, performing live costs a lot of money. going on tour and doing a string of shows, in foreign countries, one after another, is a recipe for disaster. you’d quite literally have a better chance of making money by taking what money you already have and flushing it down the toilet.

the whole point of a live performance from a business perspective is that it’s nothing more than marketing collateral for the only actual revenue streams, being selling and licensing records. there’s a reason a band always tours the new album - they’re trying to sell the damn thing.

i love how the author seems convinced that the music industry just generates money “as if by magic”, that selling records is just a massive marketing ploy, and isn’t really there to help starving musicians afford their next round of toast. no the toast just happens by magic, complete with oysters and caviar, consumed gracefully by those lazy good-for-nothing musicians, so when they get out of bed at 6pm they’re good and ready for their next money making venture on stage down the lamb and fucking lion
shearyadi

January 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am

Wonderful news!
Mixsta

January 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

Critics don’t buy records. They get ‘em free.
G|oS|co

January 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am

If the software is open source can it not be built without ads, etc?
объявления

February 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Ваааще жиир!
Jonathan

February 7th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

http://www.gratista.com

Oh yeah baby! Gratista you soooo goood to me
hyokon

February 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am

Probably too late, but I am writing a few posts (one posted now) about this ‘free’ issue. Before it becomes a dogma, we have to think it through. Here is the link.

http://hyokon.blogspot.com/200.....s-not.html
Knol

February 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am

Qtrax might be the first major P2P to go legitimate, but it won’t close the gap between legal and illegal downloading