Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally (Record industry surrenders?)
The Times (U.K.) ^ | January 28, 2008 | Adam Sherwin

Posted on 01/27/2008 7:37:25 PM PST by Stoat

From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally

 

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.

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.

The singer James Blunt gave Qtrax a cautious welcome. “I’m amazed that we now accept that people steal music,” he said. “I was taught not to steal sweets from a sweet shop. But I want to learn how this service works, given the condition the music industry is in.”

Qtrax, a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies Corporation, has raised $30 million (£15 million) to set up the service, which is available in the US and Europe from today. Allan Klepfisz, president of Qtrax, said: “Customers now expect music to be free but they do not want to use illegal sites. We believe this . . . has the support of the music industry and allows artists to get paid.”

Ford, McDonald’s and Microsoft are among the advertisers signed up to support what is thought to be the world’s largest legal music store. The service says that adverts will be nonintrusive and will not appear each time a song is played. As with iTunes, customers will have to download Qtrax software. They will own the songs permanently but will be encouraged to “dock” their player with the store every 30 days so it can gather information on which songs have been played.

Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of Vivendi Universal, said the crisis in the music industry had been overstated despite EMI’s radical cost-cutting. He said: “Look at Universal – we have double-digit profit margins. But we would like strong competition from the other major record companies to help the industry grow.” Universal has poached the Rolling Stones from EMI and Mr Levy said that others could follow as thousands of staff and artists are made redundant.

On the appearance of Qtrax, Mr Levy gave warning that the lack of compatibility between competing digital music players was as big a problem as file-sharing. And Paul McGuinness, the manager of U2, said that the sound quality of MP3 downloads was becoming an issue for bands and fans. “There is a growing consumer revolt against online audio quality,” he said.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: copyright; dmca; filesharing; intellectualproperty; ipod; mp3; music; p2p; qtrax; riaa; riia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-122 next last
To: Stoat

I liked the headline for this story on another site:
Free DRM Infected Music with Ads


21 posted on 01/27/2008 8:07:43 PM PST by sockmonkey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

...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.

Ping to check out

22 posted on 01/27/2008 8:09:39 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time." - Amos 5:13)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Stoat
"allowing the company to see how many times a song has been downloaded and played."

I can guarantee it allows the company to see more than that. I bet it scans every music file on your system then monitors everything you listen to and sends everything it can about you back to the "company".

23 posted on 01/27/2008 8:11:10 PM PST by joebuck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: 6SJ7; Allegra; ambrose; Bella_Bru; Born Conservative; Cagey; Caipirabob; CarrotAndStick; cyborg; ...
iPod
Send FReepmail if you want on/off iPing list
WARNING: This is a high-volume Ping list. Turn your headphones down
The List of Ping Lists

24 posted on 01/27/2008 8:14:33 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Stoat
Qtrax Aims to Offer IPod-Friendly Tracks

By ALEX VEIGA – 1 hour ago

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, declared 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.

The development marked an inauspicious start for Qtrax, the latest online music venture counting on the lure of free music to draw in music fans and on advertising to pay the bills, namely record company licensing fees.

The service was among several peer-to-peer file-sharing applications that emerged following the shutdown of Napster, the pioneer service that enabled millions to illegally copy songs stored in other music fans' computers.

Qtrax shut down after a few months following its 2002 launch to avoid potential legal trouble.

The company said it latest version of the service still lets users tap into file-sharing networks to search for music. Downwloads however come with copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management, or DRM, to prevent users from burning copies to a CD and calculate how to divvy up advertising sales with labels.

Qtrax downloads can be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players, however.

The company also promises that its music downloads will be playable on Apple Inc.'s iPods and Macintosh computers until April 15. That's unusual, as iPods only playback unrestricted MP3s files or tracks with Apple's proprietary version of DRM, dubbed FairPlay.

Allan Klepfisz, Qtrax's president and chief executive said in a recent interview, declined to give specifics on how Qtrax will make its audio files compatible with Apple devices, but noted that "Apple has nothing to do with it."

Apple has been resistant in the past to license FairPlay to other online music retailers. That stance has effectively limited iPod users to loading up their players with tracks purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, or MP3s ripped from CDs or bought from vendors such as eMusic or Amazon.com.

Rob Enderle, technology analyst at the San Jose-based Enderle Group, said he expects Apple would take steps to block Qtrax files from working on iPods.

Last fall, the company issued a software update for its iPhones that created problems for units modified by owners so they would work with a cellular carrier other than AT&T Inc. As a result, some modified phones ceased to work after the software update.

The move prompted antitrust lawsuits on behalf of some consumers.

On the Net:
Qtrax: www.qtrax.com

25 posted on 01/27/2008 8:15:51 PM PST by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: joebuck
I can guarantee it allows the company to see more than that.

I have no doubt. I seem to recall a big flap some months ago where it was discovered that Apple was hiding specific identifiers in their hosted music tracks that allowed them to determine if the purchaser of the song shared it with someone else.

I would imagine that a "hacked" version of the Qtrax software will appear within days proclaiming to circumvent any spyware functions of the software.

It will be interesting to watch all this play out, if you'll pardon the pun  :-)

26 posted on 01/27/2008 8:17:54 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: TR Jeffersonian

ping


27 posted on 01/27/2008 8:19:17 PM PST by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ImaTexan

Ping


28 posted on 01/27/2008 8:20:58 PM PST by bjcintennessee (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeMind

That might be a woman.


29 posted on 01/27/2008 8:21:27 PM PST by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro
Thank you very much for pinging your list  :-)

img90/7096/thankyoush6.gif

30 posted on 01/27/2008 8:21:39 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ALlRightAllTheTime; ...

PING!


31 posted on 01/27/2008 8:21:49 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (I resolve to remember to write "08" on my checks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stboz

Google search:

intitle:”index of” (mp3|wav|wma) rockford.files


32 posted on 01/27/2008 8:24:34 PM PST by BigDaddyTX (Don't Mex with Texas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Stoat

“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”

Apple can ESAD. They’ll never get a penny from me. Pack of America hating, dope-huffing pervert hippies.


33 posted on 01/27/2008 8:26:21 PM PST by dsc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Stoat

“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”

Apple can ESAD. They’ll never get a penny from me. Pack of America hating, dope-huffing pervert hippies.


34 posted on 01/27/2008 8:29:14 PM PST by dsc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
You'll just have to rip your own!!

Photobucket

Thanks for the flashback!...magritte
35 posted on 01/27/2008 8:29:17 PM PST by magritte
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Stoat

No DRM here thanks. I will continue to control the software, and all files including audio on my PERSONAL computer, not big brother.


36 posted on 01/27/2008 8:33:37 PM PST by free_life
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: free_life
No DRM here thanks. I will continue to control the software, and all files including audio on my PERSONAL computer, not big brother.

So if somebody downloads a DRM-infested 'free' song from Qtrax, strips the DRM from it and then uploads it as a Bit Torrent file would that person be committing a crime?

I suppose so.

37 posted on 01/27/2008 8:39:36 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

Bump for later reading.


38 posted on 01/27/2008 8:54:31 PM PST by Museum Twenty (Proudly supporting President George W. Bush - Proudly shouting "Rumsfeld '08!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Stoat
I seem to recall a big flap some months ago where it was discovered that Apple was hiding specific identifiers in their hosted music tracks that allowed them to determine if the purchaser of the song shared it with someone else.

There is a metadata atom in iTunes Plus tracks that contains the name of the iTunes Store account the mp3 was downloaded from.
39 posted on 01/27/2008 8:57:01 PM PST by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: harpu

Thanks very much for the update! :-)


40 posted on 01/27/2008 9:00:05 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-122 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson