Download music for "free"

[bobfrombob]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle3261591.ece

 

 

from Times Online

 

From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally

Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent, in Cannes

 

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

[Drazil]

Very interesting...

any feedback yet?

[a.miller]

Didn't James Blunt's last album sell, like, 20 million copies?

[TCP]

Does this mean we'll have advertisements in the middle of albums?

[quarter23cd]

The time has come, people. Kill your stereo. Buy a guitar. Make your own damn music.

[Welsh Rich]

Follow-up in the Times today... it was all LIES!

 

A website which promised to give music lovers the world's first legal file-sharing service was forced into a humiliating climbdown today after it emerged that the company had not secured the backing of the record industry.

 

Qtrax, a New York firm, unveiled its service with a glitzy

[Mrs. Peel]

And now they've postponed the launch.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/28/downloa...c.ap/index.html

 

CANNES, France (AP) -- A distributor of Internet file-swapping software has abruptly postponed the launch of its free online music service until it can finalize music licensing deals.

art.qtrax.jpg

 

Qtrax says it will offer more than 25,000,000 songs available for free.

 

Qtrax omitted that detail when it threw a star-studded coming-out party over the weekend.

 

The ambitious, ad-supported music service promised unlimited music downloads with the blessing of the major recording companies.

 

But that claim began to unravel just hours before Qtrax's scheduled debut Monday when Warner Music Group issued a statement that it had not authorized the firm to distribute its artists' music.

 

Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC later confirmed they did not have licensing deals in place with Qtrax, noting discussions were still ongoing. A call to Sony BMG Music Entertainment was not immediately returned.

 

Qtrax's president, Allan Klepfisz, says the launch of the service will be put off "for a short time." He also maintained that the service had the support of "rightsholders."

 

Qtrax did not provides users with the codes needed to download music through its software, but it says users were still able to use other features built into the application, including browsing the Internet and playing media files.

 

 

The development marked an inauspicious start for Qtrax, the latest online music venture counting on the lure of free music to draw in music fans and on advertising to pay the bills, namely record company licensing fees.

 

The service was among several peer-to-peer file-sharing applications that emerged following the shutdown of Napster, the pioneer service that enabled millions to illegally copy songs stored in other music fans' computers.

 

Qtrax shut down after a few months following its 2002 launch to avoid potential legal trouble.

 

The company said it latest version of the service still lets users tap into file-sharing networks to search for music. Downloads however come with copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management, or DRM, to prevent users from burning copies to a CD and calculate how to divvy up advertising sales with labels.

 

Qtrax downloads can be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players, however.

 

The company also promises that its music downloads will be playable on Apple Inc.'s iPods and Macintosh computers until April 15. That's unusual, as iPods only playback unrestricted MP3s files or tracks with Apple's proprietary version of DRM, dubbed FairPlay.

 

In an earlier interview, Klepfisz declined to give specifics on how Qtrax will make its audio files compatible with Apple devices, but noted that "Apple has nothing to do with it."

 

Apple has been resistant in the past to license FairPlay to other online music retailers. That stance has effectively limited iPod users to loading up their players with tracks purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, or MP3s ripped from CDs or bought from vendors such as eMusic or Amazon.com.

 

Phone and e-mail messages left for Apple on Sunday night were not immediately returned.

 

Rob Enderle, technology analyst at the San Jose-based Enderle Group, said he expects Apple would take steps to block Qtrax files from working on iPods.

 

Last fall, the company issued a software update for its iPhones that created problems for units modified by owners so they would work with a cellular carrier other than AT&T Inc. As a result, some modified phones ceased to work after the software update.

 

The move prompted antitrust lawsuits on behalf of some consumers.

[Analogman]

This reminds me somewhat of the Yahoo.com plan to have a site with lyrics to "millions" of songs - I wonder what became of that deal.