New free music service hits problems following MIDEM launch
QTRAX, a new free, ad-funded Internet music service that launched with a big fanfare Sunday at the influential MIDEM music market seems to have rapidly hit a series of false notes.
By Agencies |
CANNES: QTRAX, a new free, ad-funded Internet music service that launched with a big fanfare Sunday at the influential MIDEM music market seems to have rapidly hit a series of false notes.
The New-York based company's promise to usher in a new era of free and legal peer-to-per (P2P) music services is in question after it appeared that
the firm did not have the licensing agreements it said were in place with the big record labels. Barely 24 hours after the launch of its file-sharing service offering unlimited free downloads, industry sources said the company had not yet signed deals with the big four music "majors", EMI, Universal, Warner and Sony BMG.
"We are finalizing agreements with the major record labels here at MIDEM," a QTRAX executive Richard Schineller, told AFP, adding that the company would issue a statement shortly.
"We chose MIDEM to launch so that we could do it with the full awareness of the key players in the music industry," he emphasized. No officials from the big four were immediately available for comment at MIDEM, the world's biggest music industry get-together. But one source close to a record major told AFP they were currently in talks at Cannes with QTRAX on a possible new licensing deal. A licensing agreement had been in place between the label and QTRAX but this had lapsed, said the source, who declined to be identified and who gave no further details.
The New-York based company's promise to usher in a new era of free and legal peer-to-per (P2P) music services is in question after it appeared that
the firm did not have the licensing agreements it said were in place with the big record labels. Barely 24 hours after the launch of its file-sharing service offering unlimited free downloads, industry sources said the company had not yet signed deals with the big four music "majors", EMI, Universal, Warner and Sony BMG.
"We are finalizing agreements with the major record labels here at MIDEM," a QTRAX executive Richard Schineller, told AFP, adding that the company would issue a statement shortly.
"We chose MIDEM to launch so that we could do it with the full awareness of the key players in the music industry," he emphasized. No officials from the big four were immediately available for comment at MIDEM, the world's biggest music industry get-together. But one source close to a record major told AFP they were currently in talks at Cannes with QTRAX on a possible new licensing deal. A licensing agreement had been in place between the label and QTRAX but this had lapsed, said the source, who declined to be identified and who gave no further details.
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