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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
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To: Stoat

Songwriters sell the rights to their songs to publishing companies because they individually dont have the cash to do the non-stop, random, deep forensic audits neccessary to discourage labels from hiding sales and shortchanging the writer(s). If legal action against a label is ever neccessary on a songwriters behalf, the publisher has to eat the expenses, its part of the publishing deal.

A big songwriter can establish their own phantom publishing company and the big publishers will administer the rights on their behalf, which slightly ups the percentage of the (rounded) 9 cent-per song per-unit sold mechanical royalty.


61 posted on 01/28/2008 7:06:37 AM PST by skipper18 (Fred or Bust)
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To: Stoat
I'm delighted that I trusted my instincts and have never had anything to do with iTunes.

I don't get iTunes hate, but hey.
62 posted on 01/28/2008 7:33:51 AM PST by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
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To: ShadowAce; Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Thank you both very much for pinging your lists  :-)

img90/7096/thankyoush6.gif

63 posted on 01/28/2008 7:34:41 AM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Terpfen
I'm delighted that I trusted my instincts and have never had anything to do with iTunes.

I don't get iTunes hate, but hey.

In my case it's not "hate", merely caution which as it turns out was entirely justified.

64 posted on 01/28/2008 7:36:56 AM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat

I don’t see the problem with the atom, especially since I’m not in the business of giving out songs.


65 posted on 01/28/2008 7:40:35 AM PST by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
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To: ItsOurTimeNow
I wonder if this superstar will be on there.


66 posted on 01/28/2008 7:44:47 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Just another reluctant Mitt Supporter)
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To: dsc
Apple can ESAD. They’ll never get a penny from me. Pack of America hating, dope-huffing pervert hippies.

Sure, sure. But don't try to be polite. Tell us how you REALLY feel about them!

67 posted on 01/28/2008 7:45:14 AM PST by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: Terpfen
I don’t see the problem with the atom, especially since I’m not in the business of giving out songs.

I'm not in any such business either, but I just don't appreciate it when a company that I pay money to adds secret tracking codes into a file without telling me beforehand.

It's no big issue to me personally, as I don't get into MP3's much to begin with.  CD's and vinyl usually sound noticeably better on my system, and so all of this is rather an academic point for me.

If you enjoy iTunes and don't mind what Apple has done, then more power to you and full steam ahead.   :-)

68 posted on 01/28/2008 7:48:12 AM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat
but I just don't appreciate it when a company that I pay money to adds secret tracking codes into a file without telling me beforehand.

It's not a tracking code.

If you enjoy iTunes and don't mind what Apple has done...

iTunes is indeed a great piece of software for organizing a music library, as well as buying music and videos. I appreciate what Apple has done. I don't appreciate what the RIAA and MPAA have been attempting to do, which is why iTunes Plus is so important.
69 posted on 01/28/2008 7:50:57 AM PST by Terpfen (It's your fault, not Pelosi's.)
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To: Terpfen

Please, define it any way you like and enjoy it in any manner you choose.
Again, more power to you and full steam ahead :-)


70 posted on 01/28/2008 7:53:07 AM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2012: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Libertarian444

No German Volksmusic please. Yuck!


71 posted on 01/28/2008 8:11:41 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Emmett McCarthy
I see where “artists, record companies and publishers” will be paid. No provision for payment to the writers.

Most likely any artists who negotiated their contracts before the age of online music won't get a penny either.

72 posted on 01/28/2008 8:12:37 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Landru

ping


73 posted on 01/28/2008 8:24:24 AM PST by FBD (My carbon footprint is bigger then yours)
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To: Jeff Chandler
I wonder if I can download a free copy of Johnny Cymbal’s ‘Mr. Baseman’?

I wonder if I can download a free copy of The Byrds' 'Mr. Spaceman'?

74 posted on 01/28/2008 8:27:24 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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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.

Apple has always embedded purchaser info in songs bought from iTunes. I believe its purpose was to work with the DRM to identify the authorized user. Apple just didn't strip this out when moving to non-DRM music.

But that's just a step down from watermarking, a technology for finding infringing works on the Internet since the 90s.

75 posted on 01/28/2008 8:41:31 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Libertarian444

"I'm as happy as a little girl."

76 posted on 01/28/2008 8:43:34 AM PST by dfwgator (11+7+15=3 Heismans)
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To: Rome2000
don’t you mean “That might be female”?
77 posted on 01/28/2008 8:43:50 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Stop the unFair Tax now; before it is fair for your neighbor and not you.)
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To: SIDENET
Is that a guy?

Dunno.   I just Googled "Worst Album Covers" and that was the most appalling example I could find.

78 posted on 01/28/2008 8:52:58 AM PST by Libertarian444
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To: flying Elvis

Those guys are actually pretty good, revolutionary pioneers of electronic music. They were one of the first, if not the first, band to move from regular to electronic instruments, and even created one of the early electronic drum kits.


79 posted on 01/28/2008 8:58:10 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

Record companies and publishers don’t pay anybody what’s due them unless there’s an iron-clad, bullet-proof deal requiring it. Even when there is a contract calling for payment, many make it more costly and troublesome than most are willing or able to go through. “Airplay” royalties are the only ones a writer can effectively collect because that moey goes through the licensing organization. “Mechanical” royalties, which go through the record companies and publishers, are often not likely to reach the writer. I think it’s been that way for a long, long time. The good news is that a smart, young, talented artist/writer/band can self-market via the internet today, controlling the music from beginning to end. It won’t get airplay on commercial radio, but that market is shrinking anyway. Selling CDs or downloads online is a market that is readily accessible to the savvy artist and far more profitable to the artist than selling CDs which feed the record company first.


80 posted on 01/28/2008 8:58:38 AM PST by Emmett McCarthy
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