Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent, in Cannes
Posted on 01/27/2008 7:37:25 PM PST by Stoat
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.
Is that a guy?
It seems that songwriter contracts will have to be re-drafted to reflect the new paradigm. If the accountants can figure out how to pay the publisher in this new system, one would assume that a mechanism could be found whereby the songwriters will be paid as well.
If they can't, then the songwriters will go on strike and the artists will suddenly have a very limited pool of songs from which to perform.
Why?
Dangerous method. Don't they have their own servers?
Even for a Monday...
Have you tried the software? Any good foreign selections? What are some currents favs? "Grupo 100%", "Grupo Mana", Revelucao"? Anything like that? I will have to download it and check it out this week.
OTOH, if you like, you can go to YouTube and find loads of recent material with video.
THANKS
Some goodies I've found on YouTube. Amatuer videos with good music:
Sonho De Amor - Grupo Nosso Sentimento
Estrela - Exaltasamba (Ao Vivo)
You know, one of the first Sambas I ever "enjoyed" was to this song. "Bole, bole, bole gatinha!" That was in 1989. It obviously made an impression - LOL!
Yes, I meant to also say that this here solution isn’t the answer. I subscribe to eMusic where there is no DRM but the selection is limited.
You're welcome. ;-)
The dude on the right looks like his head has been photoshopped in. Either that or he’s had hand transplants and a swelled skull from polio as a child.
I'll trade ya!
I appreciate the clarification, thank you. I'm delighted that I trusted my instincts and have never had anything to do with iTunes.
ping
Uh, no, DRM-laden music in some goofball proprietary format is not what music consumers want.
This was the first article posted on this subject...
Am I correct in thinking that this could be defeated by simply burning the songs to an audio CD and then re-ripping in ordinary mp3 format?
Agreed. Since server storage space has gotten so incredibly cheap (I think that I have about 2GB of available space on most of my "free" email accounts) it will be an easy and essential selling point for Qtrax or any future portal to offer "everything".....anybody who doesn't will instantly find themselves with a customer demographic comprised mainly of 14 year olds looking for Britney Spears or Led Zeppelin tunes.
Similarly, I'm hoping that as time goes by, audiophiles will eventually be courted with the offering of high-bitrate MP3's and ISO image files of entire CD's. I know that it's asking too much to bring back vinyl in a significant way, but at least they could offer a passing glance in the direction of those people who care about reproducing the original sound as closely as possible, and who have put their money where their ears are with audio systems that cost as much or more than a fine car or even a house. If the industry shifts toward electronic music delivery without offering an "audiophile option", people who are passionate about great sound will find themselves with a diminishing number of available CD's to buy, just as what happened with vinyl.
BTTT
in 15 seconds somebody will have a DRM fix.
DRM will be easily removed just as the ipod DRM is easily removed after purchase.
Ipod is actually the biggest MP3 scam since left handed screw drivers.
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.