Tagged: EMI

Qtrax debut on temporary hold

Qtrax, the “free and legal” unlimited music download service scheduled to debut yesterday (Sunday) hit a snag when at least four of the biggest music companies – Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Universal – put the brakes on by announcing Monday that their deals with Qtrax were not yet finalized.

Talks between Qtrax (and parent company Brilliant Technologies Corp) and major music labels are said to still be ongoing and the company released a statement stating it believed such details could be addressed quickly so that the debut of the Qtrax service could go forward; however, for now the downloadable software needed to access the Qtrax service has been blocked by the site from further downloads until the service can fully debut.

The company is making several promises beyond offering “25 million songs, free and legal.” One promise is that the company will offer an iPod solution by April 15 (which is also, ironically, tax day in the US), which may come as a surprise to Apple, whose iTunes music service uses a proprietary codec that is exclusively licensed to Apple; it’s unlikely that Apple, currently charging 99 cents per tune, would offer its codec to a competing music service that would undercut its prices by 100 percent.

Thankfully, one solution Qtrax will allegedly offer is to correct roughly a decade of mistakenly attributed music. For years, since the advent of the original Napster service, many music download tracks floating around the Internet have attributed songs to the wrong artist. One notable example is Weird Al Yankovic, who has been credited for many parody songs he’s never written, including works by political satirist Paul Shanklin. Qtrax is also promising not only album cuts in its lineup, but rarities and live performance tracks as well.

While it still sounds too good to be true, Qtrax may be delayed, but is apparently not an Internet hoax.

Music industry in reverse! 25 million songs legal AND free!

EMI, Universal and Warner Music – the same companies that only a few months ago charged Minnesota native Jammie Thomas the equivalent of $9,250 per song for every song she’d allegedly downloaded for free – have changed their mind about free online music downloads. According to the Times Online (UK), those companies as well as many other recording companies, have decided at last to embrace file sharing technology.

The reversal came as the music industry announced the introduction of Qtrax, a digital music service that promises a catalog of 25 million songs that users can download and keep for free with no limits. The catch if that Qtrax’s digital jukebox will feature some advertising – kind of like radio ads – and both artists and record labels will be paid based on download popularity. Nearly every song available will allow unrestricted use through the service. If Qtrax takes off, it could pose a serious threat to Apple’s iTunes digital music store, which charges 99 cents per track.

If this all ends up being as good as it sounds, maybe music aficionados can finally spend their hard-earned sawbucks on something other than a Brandi Carlile single; like maybe some wholesale fashion jewelry or an HDTV.

The only question remaining is whether Jammie Thomas is going to be let off the hook by the men in music-industry black suits.