You may or may not recall Qtrax, though given that our last post about it was in mid-2008, you probably don’t. So, a brief refresher: Conceived of as an ad-supported “legal P2P service” that would offer free downloads of major-label music, it launched in January 2008 at the MIDEM convention, but was forced to admit that it did not, in fact, have agreements with any of the major labels yet. But in true dotcom fashion, it threw a big party anyway! Then it sorta-kinda launched in June 2008, but not really. And now, a mere 14 months after their launch, the site actually has agreements with labels and publishers, and is ready to go. So what’s it like using Qtrax? Let me tell you about my 34-step, 45-minute long journey to play one song. MORE »
Posts Tagged ‘qtrax’
the new model
Qtrax More Frustrating Than Q*bert
the biz
QTrax! It’s Back! And It’s Ready For Action!
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. MORE »
videodrone
Major Labels Creep Further And Further Down The Free-Music Path
EMI has reached deals with ad-supported music services QTrax and SpiralFrog, allowing songs from their catalog to be delivered to users at no cost (well, aside from the opportunity cost of watching ads). Both services now have content from EMI and Universal Music Group available for download, but the majors’ deals with the slightly less embarrassingly named QTrax have a catch: See, QTrax had originally billed itself as a free peer-to-peer service, just before the service’s disastrous non-launch at the MIDEM conference earlier this year. But the words “peer-to-peer” strike fear in the hearts of major-label execs, so people who want to use QTrax for their legal free music will have to use an alternate downloading method. MORE »
official statements
QTrax Begins The Post-Disaster Spin Process
So-called “legal peer-to-peer” site QTrax has sent out an e-mail to the people who signed up for the site after its splashy non-launch, claiming that “technical issues” are lurking behind the fact that none of the site’s users are able to download any songs, and that the company “has tremendous… MORE »
QTrax Continues To Spend Money Like It Has An Actual Product To Launch
During the first dot-com bubble, I worked at a company that had a big, splashy launch party for one of its sites… even though the site hadn’t launched, and, as it turned out, never would. The beleaguered ad-supported site QTrax, which has spent between $1 and $1.5 million on its debut-that-wasn’t, seems to be taking a page from that book: A Romanian musician named Florin Grozea has apparently been on the comapny’s VIP list, and he’s been taking phonecam video of the company’s launch events, including the QTrax-sponsored LL Cool J concert that went on the other night despite the site still not working, or having any catalog. (He also has video of the company’s James Blunt show, but I’ll spare you.) MORE »
QTrax: The Hilarity Continues
The saga of QTrax–the so-called legal peer-to-peer service that was set to launch Sunday night with a splashy £500,000 presentation at the MIDEM conference, only to have a lot of egg on its face when it was revealed that the company didn’t actually have any signed agreements with the major labels whose wares it would be hocking–is dragging on, with CEO Allan Klepfisz spinning like mad, telling everyone that his company is “not idiots,” and floating a few conspiracy theories:
“We are not idiots,” he said.”We wouldn’t have launched the service in front of the whole music industry unless we had secured its backing. We feel we have been unfairly crucified because a competitor tried to damage us. Everyone is very upset.”
Was the whole QTrax fiasco the end result of a scheme to pump up the stock of Brilliant Tech Corp, the online service’s parent company? Some numbers to chew on: The stock “has languished at 5 cents for more than a year. MORE »
Sony BMG doesn’t have a deal with the allegedly legal peer-to-peer service QTrax, either. Which means that the company is zero-for-four as far as deals with the major labels go. MORE »
videodrone
QTrax: The “Legal P2P” That Isn’t Quite Legal
After putting up a pretty Web page on Friday and having a splashy launch event at the MIDEM conference yesterday, QTrax–the long-in-the-works ad-supported peer-to-peer system that was supposedly going to have all four major labels on board–was supposed to launch its client at midnight ET. But there’s one small problem: Three of the four major labels don’t actually have deals in place with the service, thus throwing the “legal” part of the company’s whole “legal peer-to-peer” claim in serious doubt. MORE »
Will QTrax’s Legal Peer-To-Peer System Inspire The World’s BitTerrorists To Go Legit?
Well, probably not. But it’s still worth noting that the long-in-the-works sanctioned P2P site QTrax–which has songs from all four major labels in its catalog–launched its beta site today, only three months after it was supposed to. QTrax is going to be another attempt at the “‘free’ music that makes you stare at advertising” model that’s recently been tested by the money-burning SpiralFrog, and judging by the company’s high placement on Google Trends this morning it would seem that at least a few people are interested in checking it out. MORE »
