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View Full Version : From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally


machavez00
01-28-08, 12:40 AM
Full artilce here:From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally - Times Online (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3261591.ece)
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.

Windows beta:http://www.qtrax.com/download.php Mac beta March 18

Richard King
01-28-08, 07:14 AM
Have you tried it yet? I can't help but be suspicious. (Paranoia strikes deep). :D

ElmoreT
01-28-08, 09:25 AM
Seems like a legitimate effort, although it seems that all the i's aren't quite dotted yet...

LINK TO ARTICLE (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/28/downloading.music.ap/index.html)

Free music service hits snag

* Story Highlights
* Qtrax says it will offer 25 million songs with music labels' blessing
* Warner Music says it has not signed on
* Qtrax will provide the songs for free, site will have advertising
* Songs will play on iPods despite Apple's DRM

LOS ANGELES, California (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.

Music services such as Qtrax must secure licensing agreements from the record companies, which own the rights to master recordings, and music publishers, which control the rights to song compositions. Each of the major recording companies also operates music publishing units.
More....

Richard King
01-28-08, 10:21 AM
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/sonybmg-we-dont-have-a-qtrax-deal-either.html
Not a huge surprise at this point, but Sony-BMG doesn't have a deal with free music service QTrax, says a person familiar with the situation, who says the two companies are in discussions.More....

EXTACAMO
01-28-08, 11:29 AM
He something on it from foxnews.com. It seems its not all its cracked up to be.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325991,00.html:nono2:

EXTACAMO
01-28-08, 11:33 AM
[QUOTE=EXTACAMO;1419514]He something on it from foxnews.com. It seems its not all its cracked up to be.

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325991,00.html





http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325991,00.html

Sorry this is the link.

sean10780
01-28-08, 11:36 AM
Nice, so it looks like we won't get free music after all since most of the studies are backing away from this.

sean10780
01-28-08, 11:36 AM
Here is another article:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23121891-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss

machavez00
01-28-08, 02:31 PM
Looks like Qtrax jumped the gun on the anouncement.

4DThinker
01-28-08, 10:04 PM
What sounds too good to be true usually is.

I don't mind buying songs I want, however I'll never buy another iTunes song now that Amazon and other offer songs with no DRM. If what Qtrax offers comes with adds and DRM, I'm not insterested as the cost isn't really "free".

Pink Fairy
01-31-08, 12:19 AM
I will stick with downloading Torrents and Limewire on occassion.

sean10780
01-31-08, 08:47 AM
I went to the site and downloaded the software, and it isn't much without the capability to download songs. All it can do it be a playlist and a web browser. I'm uninstalling it.

AlbertZeroK
01-31-08, 03:17 PM
Vaporware!

cb7214
02-08-08, 07:32 AM
anymore latest news on this?

sean10780
02-08-08, 07:34 AM
There is no new news on this software, looks like they still haven't signed anyone, and the software is just basically a web browser and a music player. Hopefully they can come through.