The Qtrax saga began with lavish parties and a botched launch at Midem 2008. But after a seemingly endless series of partial launches with one or two of the major labels, the ad supported p2p finally "officially" launched last week with all four major labels on board. Despite a rough climate for both venture funding and ad sales, Qtrax anticipates launching "at full capacity with portability" to
over ten countries with the next month followed by
a phased global roll out.
Qtrax searches the via p2p for tracks and if licensed downloads them wrapped in DRM. The company will sell sponsorships and ads to be displayed during both search and play. Users can create and share playlists, as well as purchase music, tickets and related items.
"Over 95% of all digital music consumption may be illegal. And the legal sites only offer free streaming. Qtrax offers free high quality downloads. Qtrax will monetize all digital plays by sharing advertising revenue and offers a content rich environment that delivers a clearly superior consumer experience to any of the popular pirate sites," said Allan Klepfisz, Qtrax President and CEO.
"Our users will enjoy the seamless player/browser functionality that is an important part of the Qtrax experience, plus the downloads are lightening fast and delivered to your library ready to play. We are very proud of our unique offering and technology and believe our audience will notice these features and benefit from the advantages Qtrax offers," Klepfisz said.
