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EMI Launches Advertising-Supported P2P Service

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ads-and-pay-to-play-not-so-new dept.

SirClicksalot writes to tell us that EMI is launching the first ad-supported peer-to-peer music downloading service called Qtrax. With Qtrax users will have two tiers of membership available to them, which EMI hopes will draw in a large segment of users to try it out and graduate many of them to stay on with a monthly fee or purchase music permanently. From the article "In the ad-supported, free tier, users will be able to search the network for specific tracks, and those tracks registered with Qtrax will be made available for download in Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format. Users will then be able to play the downloaded .mpq file in full-fidelity sound quality for a pre-defined number of times. Each time a consumer plays a track, the Qtrax player will also offer fans click-to-buy purchase options, as well as the opportunity to upgrade to a premium subscription service for a flat monthly fee."

8 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. iTunes FairPlay Vs Qtrax DRM by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From Qtrax's page of benefits:
    DRM! You pay nothing because our DRM technology ensures artists receive royalties each time you play their song.
    Here we have an innovative use of DRM such that it is restricting the decrypting of a particular file to ensure that the user is viewing ads or clicking ads to visit websites that then, in turn, pay the artists.

    Why is this better than iTunes? Because with iTunes, the money comes directly out of your pocket but you're still forced to decrypt those files you're buying. The primary difference is that iTunes gives you the sense that you'll always be able to play that song after you've paid for it, but does anyone have this in writing?

    I'm not sure but I would wager that the "Premium" tier service for Qtrax operates in much the same way as iTunes ... with the music you pay for still being encrypted in mpq. I'll probably give the free tier of Qtrax a try ... because it's free but I'm still going to buy media format discs. Why? Because I'm not depended on a particular company's product to decrypt that disc ... at least not yet.

    Having been in bands that only play the local scene, this new "P2P2A" just looks like another level of penetration preventing bands from "making it big." For a second there, it looked like the internet & P2P networks would allow starting bands to release their stuff for anyone if they so chose (something that used to require signing a label). Now, you have to be signed on a label and it has to be the right label with deals worked with iTunes or Qtrax to make your music available. If consumers are moved to use primarily one of these two programs for their music, how will they ever be exposed to bands on indie labels or bands not on labels at all?

    What I'm trying to say is ... it used to be about the music.
    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:iTunes FairPlay Vs Qtrax DRM by dk-software-engineer · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Well given my recent troubles to decrypt an EMI copy protected CD i'm not sure where to go for music that I can listen to in the manner I choose.
      [...]
      It was one hell of a lot easier to simply download the music, why do I feel punished for trying to do the 'right' thing.
      This is what I do:
      If I like a track, but it's in a format I cannot play (DRM wmv, copy-protected CD etc.) I may not buy it. I don't like to support that kind of crap. But if I really like it, I will download it illegally, then buy it. I may not download the file from the online store, or open the case I buy in a physical store, but I've paid for my right to listen to the music.
      I don't know if it's legal (after I've paid), but I don't care. There's nothing wrong with what I do.
  2. Wait, so why should we get this? by Frenchman113 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's see... I get a "free" version of this P2P. Said P2P software contains adware and r00ts my system. Therefore, I pay a monthly fee for songs that are so DRM'ed that I can't play them more than a few times? Am I the only one that thinks there's something broken with this?

    1. Re:Wait, so why should we get this? by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Possible reasons to replace tcpip.sys
      - Make their sofware be able to go around your personal firewall to "phone home"
      - Make their sofware, outside the control of your personal firewall, be available as a server so that it can be updated/controlled remotelly
      - Wrapping, at the TCP stack level, all traffic to and from their software in an encryption layer so that you can't figure out what information is being send over the wire by snooping.
      - Increase the (thread/process level) priority of TCP/UDP traffic to and from their software so that your machine is a beter P2P drone.
      - Make your machine a drone in their P2P network all the time as long as Windows is running, even if you kill all user space processes and threads.
      - Making it harder to read any key material from memory when their software checks with the server to see if you're still allowed to listen to your music.

  3. Permanently? by haeger · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ...or purchase music permanently.


    So, that means that I'll be buying .mp3 (or .ogg) with no DRM in them? If not I'm not interested. I refuse to buy the same music over and over again. Give me something that's better than the (illegal) p2p-nets out there and I'll use it.


    Oh, and on an unrelated note ThePirateBay is back up again.

    .haeger

    --
    You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
  4. Re:Eminently Defeatable by patches · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just go with one of the readily available recorders out there like http://www.soundrecorder.net/Sound Recorder.

    Basically it sets up a sound card drvier on your computer that all the programs that emit sound use to play back through, and you can record that sound into different formats like mp3 and ogg as it is played through your speakers...

    Patrick

    --
    The worst part of being athiest.... You don't have anyone to talk to during orgasm!
  5. EMI takes one step forward, two steps back... by Pollux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It appears that EMI has seen that P2P can be a legitimate medium for which to distribute music to consumers, but it still has a lot to learn:

    The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft's Janus DRM technology...for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active.

    1) You don't ever own the music. It's being licensed, and as soon as you cancel your subscription, the DRM will stop the music from playing.

    2) You can't burn the music to a CD, still the most common method for playing music.

    3) You can't play the music on any portable device that doesn't support Windows Media, meaning iPod owners can't transfer the music to their iPods.

    EMI doesn't seem to understand that consumers want to take their music with them, not leave it on the computer. The #1 portable music player right now is the CD player, and iPod is #2. You can't have a viable competitor in the market if you cut off the top two music players, parading your DRM agenda. This service won't fly.

  6. Tiscali has shut down it's online JukeBox by kooky45 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On a related note (and a story I just submitted to /.) Tiscali have just shutdown their JukeBox online music streaming service. Their reasons are given here Tiscali Jukebox switch off Q & A. From the article:
    "Why have you decided to shut down the service today? Because after going online in total accordance with the music industry and having it launched officially, thus letting our users access it with the characteristics we tested and fine-tuned, today the music industry forwards unexpected demands."
    and
    "Clearly, major labels do not understand the business potential that is behind a service like Tiscali Juke Box which, by acknowledging and paying the rights for all songs being listened to in streaming mode, allows the safeguard of the rights of the industry and the artists."