Gizmodo
Qtrax, the free and legal P2P music network that promised 25 million songs from the four major record labels sounded too good to be true. It turns out that's because it wasn't true. The BBC reports that three of the four major labels have denied making agreements with the company, and the link promising a midnight software download is still inactive. Update: Silicon Alley Insider reports that Sony BMG also denies having a deal in place.
Ross, a Giz reader, managed to download the software while it was still available and writes to tell us about his experience. As you can see from the gallery below, the software seems pretty basic, and includes a player and a web browser (surfing Giz no less). However, when he tried to download a song, all he got was a message saying "Downloads coming soon!!".
He also tells us that the program came with a few bookmarks, including Skreemr, a web search engine for MP3s, and a section that promotes an add-on to make the songs iPod compatible. These links scream "dubious legality" to us, and the Qtrax program itself simply looks like a skin on the open-source Songbird API, where the iPod add-on comes from.
So what is the real story behind Qtrax? Were there ever major deals in place? Is someone getting fleeced? If you have any info, send it to us. [BBC]
Thanks for the help, Ross!
Comments
Well, I dunno about you, but I'm surprised. Surprised and mortified.
P.S. Time for a new rumor-smash pic :P
poops
@Kaiser-Machead: HULK DOESN'T LIKE NEW PICTURES!!!
oh why am i not surprised :)
Look...it wasn't me that sent out this bullshit press release veiled as a news item. It was this guy Dieter, but as soon as you guys got here...this is the weirdest thing...he disappeared. Like a mystical elf.
I downloaded the beta this morning which is no longer up and the download button all say "music coming soon!".
That's a shame. I was really looking forward to this. If this was a success it could have paved a new road in the music industry.
@Sean:
it coudnt work .. it woud never create the 20+ cents the Labels get on Amazon / I Tunes per Song now.
What action in the past 5 years makes you think the music industry wants to try a new model?
"claiming that the terms are in place and the contracts are just waiting for a signature."
still doesn't means it's going to be signed... may or may not...
If the only DRM embedded in each song is just a way to tally how many times it was played so the artists can be compensated, then it sounds like a pretty cool deal.
Provided, of course, if the files are encoded above 128k (I'm a snob and can tell the difference!) and we aren't locked into any particular hardware or software for playback.
Not huge news, but I've been following this pretty closely, and it seems that a few people claim to have downloaded the client. (Some say through an email link they signed up for.) But apparently, the software just says downloads are coming soon. Has anyone actually downloaded the software? Because thats a big step in proving that this may actually happen...
haha that was SO predictable.
hey could you please send me the qtrax player, because I tried downloading it and it's not on the website. I missed it when it was launched this morning.
Thank you very very much,
Cos,
cosminpanaitxxl@yahoo.com
@NOIRtist, Everyone: Yeah, if you have downloaded the program, send us some info and screenshots to tips AT giz or bennyg AT giz
This is why Apple is smart. Don't make empty promises, just keep everyone guessing and surprise them!
Here is the qtrax software.
[rapidshare.com]
Download link is available
[qtrax-cdod-r1.vitalstreamcdn.com]
Nothing works though but you can register and sign up
@Redwraithvienna:
A man can dream, can't he?
Ok, now accepting bets on how long it will take for someone to come up with a DRM stripper for these files:
Within 3 minutes: 1:1
More than 5 minutes: 1:99
For legal, free downloads; there's always SpiralFrog. Yeah... it's a HUGE pain in the ass to navigate and use. Yeah... they nag you to sign back into the website at least once a month so that your stuff will still work. Sure the selections are not everwhelming. But it does have good quality mp3's and videos that are both free and legal. Hooray to SpriralFrog for trying something new!
@Sean:
Not so sure about that ... you could get into copyright troubles with Dreamworks...
Check out all the updated info! Qtrax is looking shadier by the minute.
Benny even better Paste any MP3 blog URL into the Qtrax /Songbird address bar and you can download them all right in the Client .
The Major Labels are just going to love that feature.
Try this one
[www.kleptones.com]
Oh Spiral Frog songs work in Qtrax .....
Either they're trying to generate a spike in traffic to get a month's pay off the few ad views users will get trying to see what they can download or they're trying to force record labels' hands and pressure them to join up because the consumers have been told it'd be there.
Sketchy. Very sketchy.
This makes for very interesting news, considering Xtrax was basically promoted through a country-wide prime-time news report here in Australia over the weekend, again saying it was signed with the four major studios with 25m songs.
Considering the music industries stance on anything digital I find the whole affair unbelievable but even at that downloaded the client to mess around.
No downloads worked and the client was less than impressive. Will be fun to see how this flushes out in the coming days.
what's wrong with spiralfrog.com? you can download music for free. ok not the latest stuff but it has got a good load of music there.
There's nothing wrong with Spiralfrog at all. That's where I get all my music. People just got too hyped up about Qtrax's lies. Now that everyone is disillusioned with Qtrax, Spiralfrog will be seeing ALOT more people.
i should of know that this was scam o fake ho site will ever let s download music for free
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