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jq
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 1088
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 Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject: Major Record labels allow free downloading..... |
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What's up with this? Do you suppose this is their of way to tap into our hard drives and spy on us? Why else would they be doing this? It seems too good to be true....the web site, looks AWESOME-- 25,000,000 songs available to download free and legally.... anyway
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/01/major-labels-al.html
| Quote: | After years of fighting peer-to-peer file sharing companies, the major record labels have decided that if they can't beat them, they might as well join them -- in one case, anyway. At the MIDEM conference held in Cannes this week, QTrax announced deals with all of the major music labels and publishers to offer the first free and legal ad-supported P2P service to include major label music.
"You can't change the attitudes and habits of what is now probably amounting to two generations who believe that music ought to be free on the internet," said QTrax CEO Allan Klepfisz. "Those people are not going to be discouraged by Supreme Court decisions, they're not going to be discouraged by technological interference. Ultimately, what will discourage them is a demonstratively better service."
Klepfisz pegs the current catalog of the service over 25 million songs, dwarfing that of iTunes and other online music stores. All of the songs will be wrapped in Microsoft's Windows Media subscription DRM. This means that unlike the free, ad-supported services offered by imeem and Last.fm, QTrax's songs can be downloaded onto compatible players. The application is based on the Songbird engine, so sharing and downloading occurs within a Firefox browser -- no separate application required.
As of now, the tracks are not compatible with the Apple iPod, but Klepfisz said that the service would be compatible with iPods before too long -- an indication that Apple could soon apply the subscription technology developed for iTunes Movie Rentals to the music market.
To get the industry onboard with P2P, QTrax signed over "the lion's share of revenue" to labels and publishers, paying out on per-download and per-play bases. The site also categorized the music of the world into three lists. One list includes of artists who do not permit their music to be made available online in any capacity. "The blacklist is fast-disappearing -- my prediction is that in a year, the blacklist won't be in existence," said Klepfisz. The white list consists of the standard digital catalogs from the major and indie labels -- the same five-plus million songs that are on iTunes.
The gray list constitutes the difference between what's available on iTunes and what's available on BitTorrent. "Then you have the gray list, which is that vast body of stuff that's out there on P2P, where there are rights holders, but the rights holders themselves may not even know that a song is being downloaded frequently... To the best of our ability, we identify the rights holder and pay them a percentage of the advertising revenue. In the minority of cases where we can't identify a rights holder, we will actually put up the song for claiming, and will reserve the portion of the ad pie until that song is appropriately claimed." As with other free, ad-supported services, revenue comes from advertisers who want to target ads to specific types of listener.
Advertisers have long understood the power of music to move product, and many have developed specific music strategies for working with new services such as QTrax, according to Klepfisz. But without the labels' sign-off on this service, a sanctioned P2P service of this size never would have been possible.
Between imeem, Last.fm, SpiralFrog, and QTrax, the labels have demonstrated a new openness towards business models that deviate from rigid, record store-impersonating models such as that of iTunes.
"This is a tacit acknowledgment that 'bulletproof' wasn't working," said IDC consumer audio analyst Susan Kevorkian. "And it hasn't been working. But it was an experiment the music industry needed to undertake in order to figure out how to address digital distribution. It was a very long learning process, but fortunately there's still the possibility of finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." |
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Kizzume
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Joined: 31 Dec 1969
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Location: Tacoma, WA USA
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:31 am Post subject: |
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This seems too good to be true. There seems like there has to be a catch. I may download it. Have you tried it yet?
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jq
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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No. I may after I switch this computer to Linux. But I fear that, as ridiculous as it may sound, that maybe this is some sort of conspiracy to get into our computers so the RIAA can see what stuff we have illegally downloaded. I could just be paranoid. But I would say that windows XP home is too vulnerable if they ARE using this as a spy ploy.
On the other hand, I could just be completely ridiculously paranoid. I have a lot of guesses for legitimate things they would use this for.
1. Bankrupt Itunes. Record labels are very outspoken about their distaste for Itunes and the monopolization they have on music. Universal for example is trying to push their own web site for example where there is no middle man. If they could get people to stop buying music from Itunes they could charge for this service later and have it monopolized themselves.
2. They plan on charging at one point and are trying to get people interested.
3. They are trying to figure out WHAT gets downloaded the most and by who-- trying to get demographics so they can better advertise their music. What better way then to launch a free web site that competes with the torrents, which, don't relay any data to record industries.
4. They will make buttloads of cash out of it! Advertisement is what has turned google into one of the most successful internet businesses in the whole world. If this program features advertisers, and they have 4,000,000 people on it at all times, then advertisers will pay top dollar to run their ads.
Just a few guesses. But I know that I won't be downloading this for sure until I have Linux to ensure that my computer is safe. XP home is just WAYYYY tooo vulnerable to data mining, and if they are RIAA data miners, they are probably way more advanced than spybot would be, at least for a while.
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Kizzume
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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I don't believe this is available for Linux--just Windows and MacOS-X.
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jq
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah but there is one called "Wine" that is supposed to support Windows products. But you're probably right. Damn. Well, I am going to wait until a lot of smarter computer people have tried it out before I jump on and try it!
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Kizzume
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Joined: 31 Dec 1969
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Location: Tacoma, WA USA
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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My mother amazingly just bought me a new hard drive after my decision to quit weed. I'll probably try out the software soon on my older drive once I install a fresh Windows on the new drive.
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