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Will Qtrax Be a Success?
By JLP | January 28, 2008
From the TimesOnline:
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 plan is for Qtrax to be supported by advertising, which will then be doled out to the artists based on how popular their music is. Interesting idea.
Of course, there’s just two problems with this service:
1. The files will contain Digital Rights Management software, which will allow QTRAX to track how many times the song gets downloaded and played.
2. The files won’t be compatible with your iPod.
I suppose I could live with number one, but number 2 seems like it will be a deal-breaker for most people. I wonder how something like this will impact Apple’s iTunes? It seems like it would put pressure on Apple to lower their prices.
UPDATE: OOPS!
Topics: Miscellaneous | 9 Comments »
January 28th, 2008 at 10:54 am
It will only be a deal breaker for people who got sucked in to apples marketing and have a sub-standard player for a high price. Most of us ‘normal folk’ just have MP3 players rather than status symbols of excess.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I cant’ get on the site right now– probably overloaded from the traffic generated by this post
It sounds interesting, but if I can’t put it on my iPod, I probably won’t use it. Seems to really highlight the desperation of the music industry.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I have a question. What format are the files in? They must not be in mp3 or they would work on an IPod. If the files have to stay on your PC to be played using the Qtrax program, and not moved to a portable player or car, then the appeal of Qtrax will be less. At least until some enterprising 18-year-old develops a program to strip out the DRM and convert the files to mp3.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Sam,
I’m not sure what the format is and at this writing, the Times article is down.
I’m with you, I don’t think this is going to be a success unless the files are usable.
CFO Dad,
LOL! I found the story on Drudge so I’m pretty sure Drudge is the cause for any overload.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Sam, they are probably WMA’s or MP3′s, wither way using Plays4Sure or whatever Microsoft calls it.
I don’t get why people buy anything that’s DRM’d anyway, instead of buying the data you are just buying the right to listen to the data for X amount of time, or until the company decides they don’t want you to listen to it anymore. You limit what it can be played on, and willingly let go of your control of your content. If it didn’t make money anymore, corporations wouldn’t do it. The only democracy in the world left is capitalism, vote with your dollars.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I’m not much of a music listener, and this just makes me glad for it. It’s getting way too confusing for my head.
I recently bought an inexpensive mp3 player, but it’s been a really unsatisfactory experience thus far. (I bought a couple of mp3 files to put on it, but thus far have been unable to get the files copied onto the mp3 player. Every time I try it tells me I don’t have the license to copy the files onto the device. Well what the heck did I buy?)
I think I’ll just stick to the radio if I’m in the mood for some background noise.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
[...] AllFinancialMatters wrote an interesting post today on Will Qtrax Be a Success?Here’s a quick excerpt From the TimesOnline: 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 plan is for Qtrax to be supported by advertising, which will then be doled out to the artists based on how popular their music [...]
January 28th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
[...] AllFinancialMatters wrote an interesting post today on Will Qtrax Be a Success?Here’s a quick excerpt From the TimesOnline: 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 plan is for Qtrax to be supported by advertising, which will then be doled out to the artists based on how popular their music [...]
January 28th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
DRM or no. I don’t play that. Whatever I get I rip to MP3 so I don’t have to abide by any artificial restrictions.
DRM is so easy to beat it’s silly.
I can play these tracks on my iPod. No problem.