This was in an email Qtrax sent to users yesterday:

Just download and install the new Qtrax player, and you're on your way to a brand new music library featuring your favorite tracks. Check the "Search only available tracks" box to find tracks that are available now, but come back often because we are adding more tunes every day.

It is unclear what is new about the new version of the player (it may be the playlist sharing function). After installing the player and browsing around for about 20 minutes, I could see little had changed. Qtrax is still the same, clunky player and confusing experience it has always been. Of all the music services I've spent time with, Qtrax is the worst. I didn't think it would be possible, but Qtrax is actually worse than iMesh. The improved catalog means little ...few people are that hard up for free music.

Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, take heed. If the words "download" and "DRM" are in the business plan, toss it aside. Labels, I wouldn't pencil into the forecast much Qtrax revenue outside of advances. There is potential in ad-supported music services, but not here. What I see in Qtrax and SpiralFrog are services that fail because they would rather exist as vastly inferior versions of popular services (P2P and iTunes, respectively) than try to stake their claim to a new product category. Imeem and last.fm have the right idea, and I anticipate MySpace music will be on the right track as well. Smartly designed streaming services are far better than DRM-stricken, download-based services. With ISP-based services on the distant horizon, Qtrax, in its current form, is already DOA.

Posted by Glenn at 10:47 AM | Link
|Ad-Supported Downloads||Qtrax||SpiralFrog|

I got an email from the Qtrax Launch Team this morning. You remember Qtrax, right? The legal P2P service that failed to get licensing deals signed before it threw launch parties and was written up in newspapers across the globe. Definitely one of the greatest non-launch/worst launches of all time.

The Launch Team chalked up the lack of free downloads to "technical issues" and added it "has tremendous respect for the rights of artists and musicians and we are pleased to see so many users who share our philosophy." Of course, the issues are legal, not technical.

Email recipients were encouraged to "explore the functionality of the Qtrax media player and all the features of the music portal website." I did that last week and was less than impressed.

If you want to read it, the full email is after the jump

Continue reading "Qtracks Cites "Technical Issues," Promises Free Music In "Very Near Future"" »

Posted by Glenn at 5:43 PM | Link
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With all this Qtrax nonsense going on lately, the one part of commentary lacking has been about the actual product. Judging from my brief exploration on an obviously hamstrung service -- no streaming, no downloading, slow as heck -- I not convinced Qtrax will turn into a major player (assuming it actually gets off the ground). It seems to be too ugly (Nigel Tufnel would comment with "none more black") and too geeky (the Songbird platform) for the mainstream. Screenshots after the jump.

Jupiter's Mark Mulligan talks of Qtrax's potential in his MIDEM round-up:

Regular readers of this blog will know that I consider Qtrax to have the potential to be a (the?) major player in the ad-supported download space. (Look out for a case study on them in a forthcoming Jupiter report on Next Generation Music Services). They’ve taken a long time to get to this stage, largely due to the running around they’ve been doing behind the scenes with rights holders. Like the more widely known Spiral Frog, Qtrax offers ad supported, free downloads with DRM to restrict number of plays. But what sets Qtrax apart are the ability to search P2P networks to find the music (a recognition that the target consumers need to be found in their natural habitat) and, crucially, it offers portability, but not just portability (which Spiral Frog also offers), but portability to iPods.

Consumers would put up with ugly and geeky if the product worked well and worked with iPods. Mulligan explains how this portability problem will get solved (a "technical breakthrough" says Qtrax) and offers political reasons why Apple will not step in to thwart the hack (label relations and its settlement with the EU).

My skepticism is shared by Mulligan's fellow analyst, Michael Gartenberg. At his blog, Gartenberg approached Qtrax with caution. "If things launches and works technically, I'd love it but call me a little skeptical for now. Especially on the iPod integration. We've seen folks try to do end runs around Fair Play before."

Call us optimistic skeptics. Qtrax's funding (a reported $30 million) alone demand it be taken more seriously than the typical attempt to revolutionize online music.

(Updated: A reader questioned the claims in newspapers that Qtrax had $30 million in funding. I checked Brilliant Technology's 12/31/06 10KSB and the balance sheet shows $32.1 million in additional paid in capital. That is from the proceeds of the company's many stock issuances. It should be noted that Brilliant shows an accumulated deficit of $51 million and a stockholders' deficiency of $19 million, so assets and liabilities come out to about $2.5 million. Pretty ugly stuff.)

Below screen grabs are (1) home page, (2) library page and (3) Rolling Stones page.

Posted by Glenn at 8:00 AM | Link
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