Free and legal music downloads on Qtrax

nickswift

The music industry has spent more than a decade trying to stem the tide of illegal downloads, but it has finally given in to the file-sharing revolution, signing a deal which will deliver an unlimited supply of free songs to fans.
Qtrax, a digital service which offers a catalogue of 25 million songs to download for free, will today be endorsed by EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music.

The service, tipped to become the world's largest legal music store, legitimises the peer-to-peer networks which sparked the boom in music piracy in the 1990s by allowing computer users to share their music files online.

In return for unrestricted access to music files, users must endure a limited amount of advertising. So far Ford, Microsoft and McDonald's have signed up to advertise.

Qtrax files also contain Digital Rights Management software, which allow music companies to track how many times their songs have been downloaded and played.

As part of the deal artists, record companies and publishers will be paid in proportion to how popular their songs are. They will also get a cut of advertising revenue.
Qtrax, which was five years in the making, is not currently compatible with the iPod player, but there are plans for an "iPod solution".
The service is unveiled at the global music industry's largest annual event, MIDEM, in Cannes, France today.
The chief executive of Qtrax, Allan Klepfisz, said customers expected to be able to get music for free, but didn't want to use illegal sites. "It's been a long trek to this point for peer-to-peer to find its place in a legal world."

monsieur_epargnant

MAC version available March 18

monsieur_epargnant

oops.. here an item from BBC News today

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7213112.stm

Three major record labels have denied signing deals allowing their music to feature on a new file-sharing service offering unlimited free downloads. The service, Qtrax, boasted it would carry up to 30 million tracks from "all the major labels".
But Warner, EMI and Universal all say they have not licensed their music...

but I already emailed about 20 friends telling them about it!!!

Decsav

have any moneysavers used it yet? if so what feedback can you give?

many thanks

barmonkey

artical about it here

http://www.slyck.com/story1645_Major_Labels_Still_Have_no_Qtrax_Deal

chezzers

Launch delayed!!

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-01-29-qtrax-delay_N.htm?csp=34

woollyjumper

Downloaded the software.. but the free downloads via the software isn't available yet !
The home page link for download - doesn't work
The look is OK - but it does have two window panes around the grid.... with adverts on it (but you can just minimise it when your listening to music.
It did a trawl of my machine to make a "library" but only found mp3 extensions... which is a shame as I have other formats.
On the website it states on a "limited release" - so unsure when it go live for all to use.
I have not registered or anything, so unsure how they will tell me it is open for business, might just have to try again in the next few days.

angellotz

i've downloaded it but I don't really get it :S
it's a little confusing - sure i'll get used to it. i'm presuming that it's normal that i can't search downloads or anything yet, considering what woollyjumper said? i suppose i'll just keep checking back to see if it works!
bet it'll be good when its up and running though.
thanks op!

SwissToni_2

It's a Mozilla based modified browser, so it won't be long before someone brings out a mod to knock out the adverts, hopefully, or better still an add-on for Firefox. Downloaded it, tried a few searches and got nowhere, as has already been posted it's not currently online. Wish it wasn't gold text on black, makes for hard reading and it looks so old 8 bit tat. They should have had some free demo downloads to at least allow you to test the system. I think they've jumped the gun, we'll have to wait a while until this is fully up and running, if ever, and by then the current download will be outdated for sure. Great idea, but a total shame it currently doesn't work.

lolarentt

.......also although you will be able to download tracks (as and when?!) you wont be able to save them to CDs

woollyjumper

The home page in the downloaded app... takes you to :
http://music.qtrax.com/
this is now up and running.
I am currently at work so will have to wait until tonight to try out on home connection, i do'nt think work would appreciate me downloading on their network