Qtrax Signs Their First Major Label, Universal
Qtrax, the P2P music service that about four months ago claimed to have signed deals with all four major record labels, has finally signed their first major label. Universal Music Group are the first major label to sign up to Qtrax. This is the company’s first major label licensing deal, although it does have several publishing agreements with the likes of EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV, among others.
The service itself allows users to share DRM protected music. The DRM is obviously there to keep the music off other networks, but at the same time is helps Qtrax to establish the play counts in which they will use to pay royalties to artists and labels. Qtrax also has display ads in certain sections of the process, and users have the option to purchase music and merchandise through the service. Hang on one sec, they are a startup with an actual business model that might work, thats crazy!
3 Comments for this post
is the “DRM protected music” a new technique?
This won’t work. The network will require people to upload and share the legal versions of the songs they have. Unfortunately, the network is already being used to distribute the illegal DRM-free mp3 versions. Now that everyone has THOSE files, why would anyone on the network download the DRMed one? Especially since someone has to release it first.
Think about it this way. When you search for a file, do you look for something that has 2 seeders, or 350 seeders? Obviously the one with 350 uploaders because 1) its faster 2) its popular so you know many people have taken the same route, so its more comfortable 3) You don’t have to worry about not getting the song because the 2 seeders both go offline.
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