After a
disastrous launch of a content-free version of its site that left its CEO
sputtering and pundits giggling, the ad-supported music service QTrax is ready to try again, with a relaunch set for June 18. QTrax's initial launch was plagued by all of the major labels it trumpeted in its press release holding their content back from the service at the last minute; since then, EMI and Universal Music Group have signed their wares away to the site, although both labels have stipulated that their music has to be distributed through a method that's more traditional (and less BitTorrent-like) than QTrax's licensed peer-to-peer service. (Which should end well.) Anyway, I know it's a long shot, but I wonder if any budding entrepreneurs out there have taken away the lesson that they should focus less on the
splashy launch parties and more on developing an actual
product with their seed money. It's a hard lesson for dot-coms to learn—even in 2008, inexplicably—but it certainly makes the Google News hits a bit less ulcer-inducing. [
Silicon Alley Insider]
Idolator
The long-rumored layoffs at the retrenching EMI began today, and employees in both Blue Note and Caroline have apparently been affected; there is also word that there will be further layoffs, at Capitol and Virgin, coming down the pike tomorrow. [
Yesterday the UK's Observer claimed that the Stones were on the verge of walking away from their problem-riddled label EMI and heading over to Live Nation, which has recently gone on a 360-deal-signing binge that is funneling lots of cash toward big-name artists like Madonna and Jay-Z in exchange for the rights to all of their music-related income streams. Like both those artists, the Stones have been hurting on the record-sales side of things as of late, with their newer studio albums being met by ever-greater indifference from the public—but in a twist, the Live Nation-Stones deal reportedly includes the rights for Live Nation to market the band's lucrative back catalog. Stones flack Bernard Doherty told the press that reports of negotiations with Live Nation are false, but come on, what else is he going to say?
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