Qtrax — Ad-Supported Music With iPod Compatibility?

dnormant writes in with a note about QTrax, a 5-year-old startup that just announced deals with all the major labels to provide free, ad-supported music downloads. The new wrinkle is that, though the free tracks come encumbered with Windows Media DRM, QTrax claims that they will be playable soon on iPods. Wired's assumption is that the company is on the verge of a deal with Apple to allow use of its FairPlay DRM in place of Microsoft's. (Apple hasn't licensed FairPlay to anyone so far.) The AP coverage of the story assumes that QTrax has found a way around FairPlay on the iPod, and if so, that its solution will break the next time Apple updates iTunes.

Comments

Re:Or maybe ...

[pete-classic]

I generally refrain from replying to people's sigs . . . but your email is hidden and I can't resist. At the time of this writing your signature reads, "What part of 'a well regulated militia' do you not understand?"

I assume you mean to convey by this that you interpret the second amendment as defining a State/collective right, and not an individual one. I'd like to respond with a quote from my own web page:

The first Congress passed the Militia Act of 1792, which said, in part:

        [. . .]That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia[. . .]

So you see, militia was only meant to restrict who possessed firearms on a basis of race and sex, not based on military service.

In light of this fact, do you maintain that the second amendment is not meant to ensure an individual right to arms? (Surely we can agree that such a right, should it exist, should not be restricted on the basis of sex, race, or seniority.)

-Peter

Re:The didn't work out so well for...

[DECS]

Well according to the free market:

- Apple sold 4 billion tracks and is maintaining sustainable profits while growing its music business rapidly in per song sales.
- Rhapsody is stuck with the same niche of music renters and can't find new ones, just like PressPlay and Duet and all the rental losers before it.

Rhapsody did however manage to pull MTV's urge out of WMP and the Zune software, leaving a big hole in Microsoft's trousers. This didn't seem to have much of positive impact on Rhapsody though. Real is now promoting per track song sales.

Rise of the iTunes Killers Myth

Re:The didn't work out so well for...

[Basehart]

"So do you see the merits in having cable TV at home or do you buy every thing individually that you watch?"

I see you're not going to be very helpful in my quest for campfire argument winning.

FWIW the adults in the household don't watch any TV and haven't for years now, and I mean zip, nada, zero TV. We do have a basic service turned on to keep the cost of our cable internet down, but if we turned TV service off completely our internet would go up more than the $9 basic TV costs.

Just to keep things scientifically accurate I just asked the kids when the last time they watched TV was and they couldn't remember. The oldest said the Superbowl, but I doubt it's been a whole year. I haven't seen them watching TV for a long time though, and even way back when we did have expanded digital cable it was never on. That's why we took the box back.

I guess we just don't have the urge to stay on the entertainment cutting edge like you guys. Maybe we're of Amish ancestry, although that wouldn't explain why we all have iPods of one kind or another and a desktop or laptop in pretty much every room.

I was intrigued by your closing comments btw:

"I don't care what you like better, I know what I like better. Why do you even care what your friend is doing anyway?"

Don't forget to bring your camping chair this time :-)