Qtrax

Last updated
QTRAX
QTRAX Free and Legal Music QTRAX Logo (Feb 2015).png
QTRAX Free and Legal Music
Developer(s) LTDnetwork Inc. [1]
Stable release
2013.08.07.002 / January 30, 2015
Operating system Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X, All Windows, All Mac
Type Ad-supported, Media player
License Proprietary (freeware)
Website Qtrax.com

QTRAX was an Israeli ad-supported digital music service that provides Downloads, Streaming and Radio via Mac and PC (and on Android and iOS from February 2015) that operated from 2008 to 2019. CEO Allan Klepfisz has stated that maintaining compensation for copyright holders while capturing part of the 95 percent marketshare that continues to download music illegally is the ambition behind Qtrax's current model.

Contents

History

The company announced the launch of its service in January 2008, at the music industry's global conference MIDEM in Cannes. [2] Qtrax claimed to have obtained licenses to distribute the music of the big four music record labels: EMI, SonyBMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. [3] [4] [5] In the days leading up to the announcement, the stock price of Qtrax's parent company, Brilliant Digital, reached a 52-week high. [6] However, within days, it became clear to the media that several of the material claims made by the company were untrue.

When asked to explain, Qtrax stated that they felt they had "been unfairly crucified because a competitor tried to damage" them, and that they did "have industry agreements including with the major labels." although the "ink hadn't dried" on some of the deals. Qtrax also announced that it still planned to deliver on its promises "within months". [7]

In January 2008, the internet policing company, Web Sheriff notified Qtrax that regardless of whether the music companies supported the service, individual artists would have to give their approval. [8] It was also reported that many of the images on the Qtrax web site were unlicensed. [9]

On March 18, 2008, Italian digital music website MusicBlob [10] found that apparently several CD compilations of the Ultra Rare Trax series, a bootlegged CD series circulated on CD during the 1990s and dedicated to artists such as The KLF, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran and others, are listed in the Qtrax catalogue as if they were legitimate release.

QTRAX launched a new initiative, the ARTIST MANIFESTO, on 27 January 2015, aimed at providing music artists with better compensation for digital music consumed via its (and others) digital music services.

On April 25, 2015, The Telegraph [11] reported that despite Qtrax's self-claimed approach of being pro-artists, it owes its employees thousands of dollars in unpaid salaries. The former employees are reporting accordingly in their Facebook page [12] and their blog. [13]

QTRAX Artist Manifesto - A Better Deal for Artists QTRAX GIVE BACK Logo (Feb 2015).jpg
QTRAX Artist Manifesto - A Better Deal for Artists

The New York-based company which held license agreements with a number of major and independent labels was expected to close following a Tel-Aviv District Court order in 2015. [14] It actually continued in business until at least September 2019, [15] however, finally shutting down by November of that year. [16]

Services

QTRAX allowed music fans to download free and legal music (Download, Stream, Radio) with a selection of millions of tracks from major labels. The Qtrax Player client has been created on the Microsoft Silverlight Platform. The service was totally free to use with registration and generates revenue by a combination of advertising and strategic partnerships. Qtrax value-added service included band pages complete with links to YouTube videos, Ticketmaster ticket searches, Amazon purchase links, and a Wikipedia link. [17] Users could interact socially by creating playlists and sending music recommendations to friends. [18]

The files utilize Microsoft's Windows Media Digital Rights Management. This platform ensures the ad-supported application continues to offer free access to music files. [19]

International availability

In 2011 the QTRAX Music Service was available in 68 countries. [20]

Related Research Articles

Magnatune is an American independent record label based in Berkeley, California, founded in spring 2003. It only sold music for download through its website but added a print-CD-on-demand service in late 2004 and in October 2007 began selling complete albums and individual tracks through Amazon.com. In May 2008, Magnatune launched all-you-can-eat membership plans. From March 2010 Magnatune dropped the CD printing service and moved exclusively to all-you-can-eat membership plans. Magnatune was the first record label to license music online and as of May 2015 had sold over 7,000 licenses in its twelve years of existence.

Liner notes Liner copy

Liner notes are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.

eMusic

eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York City with an office in London, and is owned by TriPlay.

Music download Digital transfer of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a users local desktop computer

A music download is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyrighted material without permission or legal payment. According to a Nielsen report, downloadable music accounted for 55.9 percent of all music sales in the US in 2012. By the beginning of 2011, Apple's iTunes Store alone made US$1.1 billion of revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year. Music downloads are typically encoded with modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) audio data compression, particularly the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format used by iTunes as well as the MP3 audio coding format.

PressPlay was the name of an online music store that operated from December 2001 until March 2003. It was created as a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in response to the popularity of Napster.

Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes.

Music industry Companies and individuals that create and sell music

The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts.

Amie Street Online music store from 2006-2010

Amie Street was an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island. The site was notable for its demand-based pricing. The company was later moved to Long Island City in Queens, New York. In late 2010, the site was sold to Amazon who redirected customers to their own website.

The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.

International Music Score Library Project Project for the creation of a virtual library of public domain music scores

The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. It includes public domain and licensed recordings to allow for study by ear. The project, which uses MediaWiki software, has uploaded more than 630,000 scores and 73,000 recordings of more than 195,000 works by 24,000 composers. IMSLP has both an iOS app and an Android app.

Park Jin-young South Korean singer and producer (born 1971)

Park Jin-young, also known by his stage names J. Y. Park and The Asiansoul or the initials JYP, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, record executive, and reality television show judge. Park rose to stardom as a singer following the release of his 1994 debut album, Blue City. In 1997, he became the founder of JYP Entertainment, one of the most profitable entertainment agencies in South Korea. As the head of JYP Entertainment, Park has developed and managed highly successful K-pop artists including Rain, Wonder Girls, 2PM, Miss A, Got7, Day6, Twice, Stray Kids, and Itzy, as well as Mandopop group Boy Story and J-pop group NiziU.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece, or simply IFPI Greece, is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. The association publishes a Top-75 combined repertoire albums sales chart is compiled. The charts is published by IFPI Greece and sponsored by Cyta Hellas.

gogoyoko.com was an online music store and social networking music website where artists could sell directly to their fans. The site offered free streaming of all tracks, which were subsidized with advertisements in the music store. The focus of the site was on independent music both from independent artists and labels and distributors working in the independent music sector. The aim of the site was to have artists paid fairly for the sale and distribution their music on the Internet, without having to go through a record label or digital aggregators.

Grooveshark was a web-based music streaming service owned and operated by Escape Media Group in the United States. Users could upload digital audio files, which could then be streamed and organized in playlists. The Grooveshark website had a search engine, music streaming features, and a music recommendation system.

Bandcamp is an internet music company founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US.

San E South Korean rapper

Jung San, more commonly known by his stage name San E (Korean: 산이), is a South Korean rapper. He debuted in 2010 under JYP Entertainment, where he was the label's first solo rapper. He left the company in 2013 to sign with hip hop label Brand New Music. He left the company in 2018 and established hip hop label FameUs Entertainment in 2019.

HDtracks is a high-resolution digital music store offering DRM-free music in multiple formats as well as cover art with Audio CD-quality and high-definition audio master recording quality download selections.

Brand New Music is a South Korean hip hop company founded in 2011 by rapper Rhymer.

Jackson Records

Jackson Records is a film and music publishing label based in India. The label and its sub-labels/ imprints are owned and administered by Jackson Records Digital Entertainment LLP. Jackson Records as a label started functioning from December, 2011.

References

  1. ↑ Archived May 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Morrissey, Janet (2011-09-03). "O.K., Downloaders, Let's Try This Song Again". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  3. ↑ "A Note From Allan Klepfisz | Qtrax Music Experience". Qtrax.wordpress.com. 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  4. ↑ "FILE-$HARING". June 25, 2007. Archived from the original on January 28, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Major Labels Allow P2P Music Sharing on Qtrax". Archived from the original on January 28, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Qtrax jumped gun on online deal, labels say - latimes". Articles.latimes.com. 2008-01-29. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  7. ↑ Archived October 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Sowa, Tom (2008-01-29). "Not even out the door and already the Web Sheriff is after Qtrax". The Spokesman-Review . Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  9. ↑ "Software - CNET". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  10. ↑ "MusicBlob - Hey, there's pirate music in my Qtrax!". Musicblob.it. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  11. ↑ "Qtrax, the company that wants to fix musicians' pay, hasn't paid its own staff". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
  12. ↑ "Qtrax Unpaid Former Staff Manifesto". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  13. ↑ "Qtrax Unpaid Staff | Free Music and Artists' Rights are great, but PAYING YOUR EMPLOYEES is better". Exqtrax.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  14. ↑ "Going to Liquidation!". Qtrax Unpaid Staff. 27 December 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  15. ↑ "QTRAX". 2018-09-22. Archived from the original on 22 September 2018. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  16. ↑ "qtrax.com". 2018-11-28. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  17. ↑ "Surprise! Qtrax, The 'Free and Legal Music Downloads' Service, Is Back". WIRED. 2011-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  18. ↑ "Qtrax: New Oz Free Digital Music Service.. And Its Legal". Archived from the original on April 11, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  19. ↑ Fisher, Ken (2008-01-28). "Qtrax's free, ad-based P2P: Gnutella meets Zune-esque DRM". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  20. ↑ "QTRAX launches free, legal music download service in ten countries". Telematicsnews.info. 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.