TimeTrax is a software and hardware platform from Time Trax Technologies Corp. which allows audio recording from satellite radio, Internet streaming and traditional radio broadcasts. The company is best known for its disruptive innovation and leading role it played in the transformation of the business model of the music industry.
The original software was created by Scott MacLean to time shift XM Satellite Radio programming using the $50 XM PCR PC-connected satellite radio—doing so by recording the audio to MP3 format, and saving songs as individual MP3 files, named and tagged with the artist and song name. Now, the TimeTrax technology "de-aggregates" any radio-like broadcast and then reassembles that content, customized for the user. In other words, it records individual songs from the radio, saves each song as individual MP3 files and allows the user to build a music library.
Although XM initially encouraged third-party application development for the XM PCR radio, publishing links to third-party applications on its website, XM discontinued the XM PCR radio after the release of TimeTrax. [1] XM publicly stated that the discontinuation of the XM PCR was a previously planned product end-of-life, however several sources from within XM later confirmed that the withdrawal of the product was due to mounting pressure from the RIAA due to the emergence of TimeTrax. After the withdrawal of the XM PCR and because of the popularity of TimeTrax, used XM PCR radios started selling online for as much as $300.
Acquired by Time Trax Technologies Corporation (a Delaware Corporation) in September 2004, the company expanded the product offering to include hardware that functioned with the XM Direct radio, as well as the Sirius Connect radio. They also included functionality to operate with the XM Online streaming audio system. The company registered numerous patents, although there has been much debate about the validity of the patent of their system, due to its simplicity. At the 2006 CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Time Trax announced and demonstrated a new product, TraxCatcher. Traxcatcher resembled a 'clock radio' and had a dock and portable MP3 player. It functioned much like the satellite radio product, but for use with FM radio and had a 'line in'. This demonstrated more depth to the company's claims about their technology because FM radio does not provide the data stream with song name and artist (which provides the timing for 'cuts'). According to the media that got to use the product, it seemed to function as the company claimed (today, despite a commitment from the company, it appears that the product has not been made available for sale).
While receiving extensive press and media attention for the very visible consumer software and hardware products, the company also developed an OEM business as well as an international partnership which included the sharing of technologies with a company in Sweden called PopCatcher.
After stories featuring MacLean and TimeTrax appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, and in syndicated AP articles, TimeTrax became the de facto standard in time shifting of satellite radio. Time Trax's Elliott Frutkin was a very visible critic of the entertainment industry and provoked the RIAA by press release titles such as "Will Time Trax Product Launch Rattle the RIAA, Again?" [2] Time Trax was also involved in the Grokster Supreme Court case, [3] insofar as they filed an 'amicus curiae' brief. [4]
By July 7, 2006, the address of the TimeTrax home page was redirecting to the XM Radio corporate site. This created significant confusion and speculation that TimeTrax may have either been acquired by XM Radio or forced to shut down. At the same time, an alleged representative from Time Trax asked SatelliteGuys.US to shut down a forum they hosted for the company. After questioning the authenticity of the contact, the forum was restored a short time later to provide information to Time Trax customers as well as wait for an official confirmation from Time Trax. On July 15, 2006, SatelliteGuys.US posted details from an interview with Time Trax's Elliott Frutkin. Although he was unable to speak on details of the issue, he confirmed that TimeTrax was no longer on the consumer market, although there were no current plans to disable the technology infrastructure to allow continued use by individual consumers. Mr. Frutkin hinted at several possibilities the company was considering for their software, some of which included turning the registration servers over to a third party, releasing a patch that would stop TimeTrax from looking for the server, or distribute the software as either freeware or open source.
Since then, the TimeTrax website has been restored to its original operation, and hosts previous versions of the TimeTrax software. No further information has been made available regarding the viability of the company, and there has been no confirmation whether they are still in operation. On November 1, 2006, SatelliteGuys.US closed their Time Trax forum due to a lack of current information about the company.
The TimeTrax software was made available for download until 2008 along with a hardware adapter for downloading and MP3 creation purposes. The servers upon which the TimeTrax software relied were shut down in 2013, at which point all operations ceased.
Kazaa Media Desktop. was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc., which lasted until August 2012.
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its service included 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels, and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels were identified by Arbitron with the label "XM".
Grokster Ltd. was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies that created the Grokster peer-to-peer file-sharing client in 2001 that used the FastTrack protocol. Grokster Ltd. was rendered extinct in late 2005 by the United States Supreme Court's decision in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. The court ruled against Grokster's peer-to-peer file sharing program for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, effectively forcing the company to cease operations.
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
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MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled unanimously that the defendants, peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast, could be held liable for inducing copyright infringement by users of their file sharing software. The plaintiffs were a consortium of 28 entertainment companies, led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
This is a timeline of events in the history of networked file sharing.
Squeezebox is a family of network music players. The original device was the SliMP3, introduced in 2001 by Slim Devices. It had an Ethernet interface and played MP3 music files from a media server. The first Squeezebox was released two years later and was followed by several more models. Slim Devices was acquired by Logitech in 2006.
MoodLogic was a software company founded in 1998 by Tom Sulzer, Christian Pirkner, Elion Chin and Andreas Weigend, and was one of the first online music recommendation systems. The company obtained ratings on over 1 million songs by over 50,000 distinct listeners as part of its proprietary method for modeling user preference space.
The term ripping can also apply to radio. New software, techniques and cloud services now makes it possible to extract the songs played on the radio and digitally save them on separate audio tracks. Available techniques make it possible to rip the music from Internet radio broadcasts, satellite radio broadcasts and FM radio broadcasts.
The XM PCR is a satellite receiver sold by XM Radio and discontinued in 2004, amidst piracy concerns. Programs allowed users to record every song played on an XM channel, quickly and cheaply building an MP3 library.
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include removable media, centralized servers on computer networks, Internet-based hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer networking.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the rise of digital media on the internet and computers as a central and primary means to record, distribute, store, and play music caused widespread economic changes in the music industry. The rise of digital media with high-speed internet access fundamentally changed the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry, and consumers. The rise of digital music consumption options contributed to several fundamental changes in consumption. One significant change in the music industry was the remarkable decline of conventional album sales on CD and vinyl. With the à la carte sales models increasing in popularity, consumers no longer downloaded entire albums but rather chose single songs.
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MyLink a.k.a. Intellilink is a telematics system/infotainment system offered by General Motors in their vehicles. The system was debuted in 2011 in the then-new Chevrolet Volt.