If not for Forbe.com's Louis Hau, I would have forgot that ad-supported P2P is going to rear its head in 2007. "Free Music -- Next Year?" catches up with some companies that made headlines in 2006 but have been quiet leading up to their product launches. (Mashboxx's last press release was on July 28, 2006.)

SpiralFrog is running behind schedule, Hau reported, but will launch soon and has signed up more labels. Its December 2006 launch was pushed back and now the company hopes to debut by late January 2007. SpiralFrog just launched its beta and will soon announce partnerships with "about 20" independent labels. Universal Music Group and Koch Records has already signed on with SpiralFrog.

Mashboxx, quiet during 2006, will launch a beta in three to four months, Hau wrote. Company founder Wayne Grosso said Mashboxx expects to secure financing soon from a strategic partner. It has deals with all four major music groups.

Qtrax is also running behind schedule. Its planned debut was the third quarter of 2004. Now the company is aiming for the first quarter of 2007. Qtrax has deals with the four majors as well as The Orchard and TVT Records.

An Equitas analyst report (filed as an Form 8-K last week) predicted Qtrax annual revenues ranging from $20 million to $175 million. The report said Qtrax could be a good acquisition for both search engine companies and media companies like Viacom and Newscorp. Equitas offers some insight into the planned service. Qtrax will offer a two-tier service. The first tier is ad-supported, the second is premium subscription service with more features. Both tiers will filter existing P2P networks and offer protected WMA files. Songs and albums can be purchased outright. In addition, Qtrax will offer an incentive program through point accrual, and will have social networking and music discovery aspects.

(After the jump, thoughts on these services and their strategies.)

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