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The dream of licensing the vast amount of music available on peer-to-peer networks by paying the labels upfront fees and/or a percentage of ad revenue remains elusive for Qtrax, but the company made significant strides Monday, inking a deal with Beggars Group, one of the world's largest independent record label networks.
The deal, which comes on the heels of similar ones with publishing interests and TVT Records, adds music from some legendary labels: Beggars Banquet, 4AD, XL
Recordings, Rough Trade Records, Mantra Records, Mo'Wax Records, Locked OnRecords, Matador Records, Too Pure Records and Wiiija.
I was not able to download from Qtrax songs by any of the the impressiveroster of artists, including Adele, Basement Jaxx, Beirut, BritishSea Power, Jarvis Cocker, M.I.A., Radiohead, TV On The Radio, The WhiteStripes, The Charlatans, Cocteau Twins, The Cult, The Fall, Gary Numan,
Pixies, The Prodigy, and many more. (I'm trying to find out why the songs aren't showing up – there could be an outstanding issue with the publishing rights.)
Allan Klepfisz appreciates the support, which will presumably include songs from these artists showing up after Qtrax's announcement goesout: "Beggars has consistently shown themselves to be true visionariesin the world of independent music, and we are thrilled to have theirsupport."
Update: The announcement has gone out, but songs from the Beggars' network don't appear to be downloadable yet.
Hopefully other labels – especially the majors – and publishers follow suit, andlicense not only the official recordings but all of the rarities, liveversions, and other weirdness available on P2P. Only then can Qtraxreach its ultimate ad-supported, pay everybody potential (some 30 million tracks, if their calculations are correct). For now, though, the deal should at least resultin some decent free music being available on the service.
Qtrax is an ad-supported P2P client based on Songbird that lets usersdownload songs from other users for free. Songs are wrapped in WindowsMedia subscription DRM (fair enough, some would say, since they cost nothing). Aside from restricting the devices the songs can be playedon, for now, the DRM helps Qtrax track which songs are being played,
because that's how the ad revenue is divided amongst the labels.
See Also:
- Qtrax Claims Major Labels Are Onboard With P2P Music Sharing (Updated)
- Qtrax First Look: Nice Interface, but Where Are the Tunes?
- Qtrax CEO Addresses Miscued Launch, Says Service Will Soon Go Online
- Songbird (And Qtrax) Officially Cannot Play Apple's DRMed Music... for Now
- Some Music Now Available on Qtrax
