Rich Fiscus
28 Jan 2008 2:39
It's two hours after the official Qtrax launch time and there's still no sign of a client for download. Since the story of the new P2P based, ad-supported online music service became hot news over the weekend, their website turned into a popular destination. At one point it even featured a message suggesting that visitors come back in 24 hours as the site was unavailable due to high traffic. That was later replaced with a promise for a download to be available at midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST). It's now just past 2AM EST and still no sign of the download. And apparently not quite the same story we, and many other outlets, publicized yesterday.
Although Qtrax is promising downloads from all four major labels - Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony BMG Music, Warner Music Group (WMG), and EMI Group - according to executives from three of the four companies no agreements for their content exists. No one from Sony BMG has commented so far. WMG spokesman Will Tanous told the Silicon Alley Insider that “Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service."
UMG has confirmed they're negotiating for the rights to their music with Qtrax, and although contract they previously had with WMG has expired, a Qtrax spokesman said "We are in discussion with Warner Music Group to ensure that the service is licensed and we hope to reach an agreement shortly."
However, it's now nearly 2:30AM EST and there's still no sign of a client to download. It's not quite the kind of start many people were hoping for. It has to make you wonder if there was never a launch planned for today, but rather a PR event orchestrated to draw attention to the company at an important music industry convention.