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EMI Launches Advertising-Supported P2P Service 260

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ads-and-pay-to-play-not-so-new dept.
SirClicksalot writes to tell us that EMI is launching the first ad-supported peer-to-peer music downloading service called Qtrax. With Qtrax users will have two tiers of membership available to them, which EMI hopes will draw in a large segment of users to try it out and graduate many of them to stay on with a monthly fee or purchase music permanently. From the article "In the ad-supported, free tier, users will be able to search the network for specific tracks, and those tracks registered with Qtrax will be made available for download in Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format. Users will then be able to play the downloaded .mpq file in full-fidelity sound quality for a pre-defined number of times. Each time a consumer plays a track, the Qtrax player will also offer fans click-to-buy purchase options, as well as the opportunity to upgrade to a premium subscription service for a flat monthly fee."
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EMI Launches Advertising-Supported P2P Service More

EMI Launches Advertising-Supported P2P Service

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  • iTunes FairPlay Vs Qtrax DRM (Score:4, Interesting)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:32AM (#15486168) Journal
    From Qtrax's page of benefits [qtrax.com]:
    DRM! You pay nothing because our DRM technology ensures artists receive royalties each time you play their song.
    Here we have an innovative use of DRM such that it is restricting the decrypting of a particular file to ensure that the user is viewing ads or clicking ads to visit websites that then, in turn, pay the artists.

    Why is this better than iTunes? Because with iTunes, the money comes directly out of your pocket but you're still forced to decrypt those files you're buying. The primary difference is that iTunes gives you the sense that you'll always be able to play that song after you've paid for it, but does anyone have this in writing?

    I'm not sure but I would wager that the "Premium" tier service for Qtrax operates in much the same way as iTunes ... with the music you pay for still being encrypted in mpq. I'll probably give the free tier of Qtrax a try ... because it's free but I'm still going to buy media format discs. Why? Because I'm not depended on a particular company's product to decrypt that disc ... at least not yet.

    Having been in bands that only play the local scene, this new "P2P2A" just looks like another level of penetration preventing bands from "making it big." For a second there, it looked like the internet & P2P networks would allow starting bands to release their stuff for anyone if they so chose (something that used to require signing a label). Now, you have to be signed on a label and it has to be the right label with deals worked with iTunes or Qtrax to make your music available. If consumers are moved to use primarily one of these two programs for their music, how will they ever be exposed to bands on indie labels or bands not on labels at all?

    What I'm trying to say is ... it used to be about the music.

    • Re:iTunes FairPlay Vs Qtrax DRM (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ovoskeuiks ( 665553 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:42AM (#15486190)
      Well given my recent troubles to decrypt an EMI copy protected CD i'm not sure where to go for music that I can listen to in the manner I choose.

      Seriously I use to pirate alot of music then I decided one day that it wasn't right and I should pay for the music I listen to. So I went out and purchased a couple of new CD's and I get rewarded with CD's that don't play in some CD players or as with the case with the last CD I bought, cannot play it on my computer or store the music on my computer. I can run the Macromedia player thing that comes with it but that it turns out is just playing .wma files hidden in a second session on the cd. It was one hell of a lot easier to simply download the music, why do I feel punished for trying to do the 'right' thing.
      • Welcome to the DRM age, citizen, where paying customers are turned into criminals and where 12 year olds do a much better job than the multibillion dollar music recording industry by providing the world with faster, cheaper, more convenient and better copies of other people's music .

        The smart move here is to go back to downloading your music in free, unencumbered, formats without the artist's permission. If you have an overpowering urge to pay for the music you listen to, then by all means do so, but don't
        • There's one good thing about this DRM music service: the songs don't cost anything. That means it should be a huge success, right? What if it's not? Won't that then be proof that people are not just illegally copying music because "they're cheap", but because there is no DRM-free alternative way of obtaining music? Maybe the record companies will wake up if this flops.
      • Trying to do the right thing? Haven't you learned anything from the RIAA? You must really be a sucker...

        Seriously, my home stereo IS a computer. Using a proprietary player is not an option; that would be like using a CD changer except for a handful of CDs that requie their own proprietary player, which you have to plug into your stereo whenever you want to listen to them.

        My solution is to only listen to music that is available in usable formats. That basically means MP3 and _real_ CD audio. Funny

      • CDDA logo (Score:3, Informative)

        by h2g2bob ( 948006 )
        Always chack for the CDDA logo [wikipedia.org] when buying CDs, as if they follow the CDDA standard it won't b0rk up when playing on older players or your PC. Also disable autorun, unless you like their crap hidden in your PC.

        h2g2bob

      • Well given my recent troubles to decrypt an EMI copy protected CD i'm not sure where to go for music that I can listen to in the manner I choose.
        [...]
        It was one hell of a lot easier to simply download the music, why do I feel punished for trying to do the 'right' thing.

        This is what I do:
        If I like a track, but it's in a format I cannot play (DRM wmv, copy-protected CD etc.) I may not buy it. I don't like to support that kind of crap. But if I really like it, I will download it illegally, then buy it. I

      • You hit the nail on the head- why would someone go out of their way and be hassled to be legal. (Paying taxes aside) I don't mean to be captain obvious here, but when stealing music rates a 1 on the hardness scale and buying it rates a 10 on the hardness scale, how will people get their music? Maybe it it because I am not the president of a record company or an RIAA bigwig, but my little brain can't understand why record companies and the RIAA think that making their product hard to acquire is good for busi
      • See my take on the matter:

        I, Pirate [blogspot.com] (To plagiarize the 'I, Robot', meaning someone rejected by society as a subling)
      • It was one hell of a lot easier to simply download the music, why do I feel punished for trying to do the 'right' thing.

        Don't worry about it too much. The important thing is that you learned your lesson.

    • Re:iTunes FairPlay Vs Qtrax DRM (Score:4, Informative)

      by Aceticon ( 140883 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:43AM (#15486433)
      I'm not sure but I would wager that the "Premium" tier service for Qtrax operates in much the same way as iTunes

      From the article itself:
      "The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft's Janus DRM technology, which allows consumers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active."

      In other words: only supported by Windows Media portable players or Window itself, only plays as long as you pay your monthly fee, non-transferable to different formats.

      As in, worse than iTunes.

      Nothing to see here folks - just another showpiece online music store from the music industry so that they can show how "pirates are hurting even sales of music in digital format" while they lobby for wider copyright protection, mandatory DRM on everything and tougher penalties for non-commercial copyrigh infringement.

    • Itunes makes it obscenely easy to "remove" drm. When you have itunes files, just burn them to a cd. This can serve 2 purposes:

      1: Backup . Mom always said backup frequently and often.
      2: DRM free version. This version is DRM free. You can rerip. I've tried it reripping as mp3 (256). I couldn't notice any noticable decrease in quality. If you can you probably shouldn't be buying 128 kbps aac's in the first place..

      3: Jhymm (cough)
    • Here we have an innovative use of DRM such that it is restricting the decrypting of a particular file to ensure that the user is viewing ads or clicking ads to visit websites that then, in turn, pay the artists. Let us see, they distribute files which make the computers visit certain sites. And how is it different from creating botnets for DDOS attack?

  • No iPod compatability = dead. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iainl ( 136759 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:36AM (#15486174)
    Yes, it's yet another online music service whose music won't work on iPods.

    In fact, since they're using their own custom DRM and relying on you seeing adverts while you listen (how many people look at the screen while listening to music, then?) it won't work with other portable players, either.

    So why are you going to want this, other than for the free version to try out tracks occasionally (and possibly record them to a less encumbered format)?

  • That sure was fast... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:38AM (#15486177)
    Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format

    There, out of business before I was able to read to the end of the article.
    • Indeed. That sucks so much the virii distibutors won't even bother with this thing.
    • Exactly.

      I was once a victim of Sonys piece of crap ATRAC format and will never be caught out like that again.

      Prior to moving overseas for an extended backpacking holiday followed up by living overseas for a while I purchased a SONY mp3 player. Like an idiot I converted all my (and my GFs) CDs to ATRAC format onto the player so we could listen to them while away as I wasnt going to bring all our CDs with us (approx 60-70 CDs).

      So now living in another country I have a whole bunch of ATRAC files that I cant mo
    • Yeah, me too! Man, they totally stole that extension from Blizzard.

  • Wait, so why should we get this? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frenchman113 ( 893369 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:40AM (#15486184) Homepage
    Let's see... I get a "free" version of this P2P. Said P2P software contains adware and r00ts my system. Therefore, I pay a monthly fee for songs that are so DRM'ed that I can't play them more than a few times? Am I the only one that thinks there's something broken with this?

    • Re:Wait, so why should we get this? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cyxxon ( 773198 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:11AM (#15486286) Homepage
      That was exactly my first thought. After checking some pics on the install guide, my jaw dropped to the floor. This installer replaces tcpip.sys and even advises the user just to click away the warning message Windows pops up because system files are being touched. Install guides like this are ok if I find them on some forum explaining how to install XP Visual Styles by using patched Dlls since I kinda know what I am doing, but coming from a global player like EMI and obviously directed at the unsavvy unwashed mashes... *shudder* I mean, Joe Sixpack will trust these guys!

      This is one major point where Microsoft has always been critizised - lax security. And now really big companies undermine even the weak efforts Microsoft has put into their OS because of freaking ad-supported DRM encumbered music... way to go, EMI...

      • Re:Wait, so why should we get this? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Aceticon ( 140883 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:57AM (#15486505)
        Possible reasons to replace tcpip.sys
        - Make their sofware be able to go around your personal firewall to "phone home"
        - Make their sofware, outside the control of your personal firewall, be available as a server so that it can be updated/controlled remotelly
        - Wrapping, at the TCP stack level, all traffic to and from their software in an encryption layer so that you can't figure out what information is being send over the wire by snooping.
        - Increase the (thread/process level) priority of TCP/UDP traffic to and from their software so that your machine is a beter P2P drone.
        - Make your machine a drone in their P2P network all the time as long as Windows is running, even if you kill all user space processes and threads.
        - Making it harder to read any key material from memory when their software checks with the server to see if you're still allowed to listen to your music.

        • Re:Wait, so why should we get this? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by jpop32 ( 596022 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @09:57AM (#15486845)
          Possible reasons to replace tcpip.sys...
           
          ...are all bullshit. Tcpip.sys is an integral (and crucial, at that) part of the OS, made by Microsoft, and no other company should be allowed to touch it. I mean, what if MS releases a patch and rewrites it? You'll be unable to play your legitimately paid music, at least until the DRM guys have their way with it. I won't even go into other, all too obvious security related issues.

          No, no, no... This is just a monumentally stupid idea, and its creators are in ugrent need of public redicule, if not a lawsuit by Microsoft.
        • TCP is still on the transport level, so you can still snoop at the bottom half levels (network, data-link, physical). If they wrapped at the IP level, you still have the data-link and physical levels to snoop at. Nobody is going to successfully deprecate TCP/IP just to support some encrypted protocol that only helps DRM, so you'll always have a lower level to snoop network traffic at.
      • The question is, just what does the modified tcpip.sys file actually do?
        • The question is, just what does the modified tcpip.sys file actually do?

          It'd be a lot of work to tell for certain, but the obvious guess is that it undermines all other p2p software, either by making it fail to work or by reporting you to EMI (or both).
    • I don't see this...

      You pay a subscription to listen to music a limited number of times, perfectly reasonable just like subscription radio. Maybe you feel it's too expensive, take your money somewhere else then...

      Same goes for the software, it's offered, and nobody is forcing you to use it, in other words, it's not broken, just not for you.

  • Permanently? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by haeger ( 85819 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:41AM (#15486187)
    ...or purchase music permanently.


    So, that means that I'll be buying .mp3 (or .ogg) with no DRM in them? If not I'm not interested. I refuse to buy the same music over and over again. Give me something that's better than the (illegal) p2p-nets out there and I'll use it.


    Oh, and on an unrelated note ThePirateBay [thepiratebay.org] is back up again.

    .haeger

    • If not I'm not interested

      Corporations looking to turn a profit don't care. They aren't catering to the Slashdot crowd. iTunes is a resounding success and proves that if a legal music download service is done correctly then people will use it. Nobody is interested in pandering to the "if it's not an open format then I won't use it" crowd because if it's a fair DRM scheme it's been proven that Joe Sixpack will use it. As long as you can burn purchased tracks to a CD then you can re-rip them in any format y

    • Your PirateBay link, that is. Anything you click on at the main page (http://www.thepiratebay.org) takes you to http://thepiratebay.org./ [thepiratebay.org.] And a lot of the funny legal notices are missing.

      Are we sure the right people are running this system, or is it a honeypot to collect IP addresses? The whole site was confiscated a while ago by police. Are we sure who's running it?

    • At $.22 per track, decent VBR MP3 files with no DRM, over 600,000 tracks to choose from [emusic.com], HELL YEAH!

      Of course the picky among us will still refuse for dubious reasons (30 second previews, don't like the way files are tagged, no Brittney, etc., ad nauseum).

      But I, for one, support the things they are doing right (great selection, no DRM, you bought it - you own it) by subscribing. Get your 15 free tracks, browse the collection, see if you don't feel the same...

      It's a chance to put your money where your mo

  • Eminently Defeatable (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ajs318 ( 655362 ) <sd_resp2@@@earthshod...co...uk> on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:42AM (#15486191)
    As long as it works with even one sound card for which Open Source drivers exist, this DRM scheme is defeatable, just the same as any other DRM scheme that has ever existed or will ever exist. Every penny spent pursuing what is demonstrably a mathematical impossibility is a penny wasted.
    • Nope! As long as it works with even one operating system where anyone can write drivers, this is defeatable. I could just write a driver that dumps all sound data to a file.
    • ...as soon as someone writes it.
      Probably in a couple of weeks.
      • Meh, digital perfection is grand and all but since the source is "full fidelity" just running a stereo lead to a second PC running WAV capture or realtime MP3 convert is going to give you an OK copy, considering taping off the radio used to be OK. But this is just being petty about the DRM and using the good ole analog hole to defeat it. 10x easier just to pirate if that's your thing.
        • Have you noticed how few motherboards actually have a line-in port these days?

          Mic inputs are mono, and have preamplification and bandpass filtering which make them unsuitable for anything but recording speech.

          • Have you noticed how few motherboards actually have a line-in port these days?

            No. Everything I've got that has onboard sound, everything I've seen recently (including cheap business PCs) and so on has both line-in and mic ports.

            Mic inputs are mono[...]

            Not mine. I ended up getting a mic from radio hut because I needed to record some quickie voice stuff for the in-house advertising loop. I further ended up with a 1/4" mono to 1/8" stereo miniplug adapter... for a reason.

            [...]and have preamp

    • Just go with one of the readily available recorders out there like http://www.soundrecorder.net/ [soundrecorder.net]Sound Recorder.

      Basically it sets up a sound card drvier on your computer that all the programs that emit sound use to play back through, and you can record that sound into different formats like mp3 and ogg as it is played through your speakers...

      Patrick
    • This is just more proof that evil hacker tools like Windows Sound Recorder are killing the music industry and should be banned.
    • The whole idea of DRM is fundamentally flawed. Encryption works when 2 parties want to communicate without allowing a 3rd party to monitor the communication. DRM is designedd so that one party encrypts something and then sends it to another party and says "Ok, only decrypt this using a black-box decryption algorithm". The only thing stopping someone from reverse engineering the decryption algorithm and copying the music is the DMCA.

  • bad format, try again (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This sounded fine, until I read the fatal words: Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format

  • Not gonna work (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FiveDollarYoBet ( 956765 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:49AM (#15486214)
    Hmmm.... so I can either watch ads and download music in a proprietary format that expires after time OR I can pay for a subscription and all of the songs I download are only good for as long as I keep paying each month?!?!?!

    FTA:The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft's Janus DRM technology, which allows consumers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active.

    Services like this will never work. Their formats aren't compatible with iPODs and their proprietary formats and 'listen as long as you subscribe' business models are just plain stupid.

    How about a service where it's fifty cents to download a song, you can choose what format you want it in and it doesn't expire.
    How about letting me download it and listen to it first to see if I like it. If I don't pony up the two quarters it expires in a week.
    How about making an online store that doesn't require iTunes, Windows Media Player or any of the other bloatware mp3 players out there.
    How about putting together an online music store that people will actually use, until then me and everybody else I know of is just going to keep pirating.

    signature goes here

    • Re:Not gonna work (Score:4, Informative)

      by 19061969 ( 939279 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:02AM (#15486264)

      Like Magnatune? [magnatune.com] ;)

      Sorry to bang on about it and okay, I know the selection isn't the best but it's not bad at all. You can try entire albums before you buy, download in whatever format (MP3, OGG, WAV, Flac, etc), albums costs $6.00 each (you can pay more if you want), it doesn't need any proprietary player, the downloads work with any MP3 player.

      Oh and you can give 3 copies of your download to friends legally. And the help is way better than anything else out there for music.

      And yes, I do use it. In fact, it's the only place I get music these days because I'm tired of being treated like a potential criminal ("pirate") and paying for the privilege.

    • Services like this will never work.

      Cynical hat on here .. I don't think it's supposed to work. It's an exercise in marketing to congress: piracy is rampant and nothing the music industry tries will ever stop it, so the law should be make even tougher.
    • I have a subscription to audible.com

      You know what? If I were to cancel the subscription, I'd STILL be able to listen to all that media without paying an extra penny.

      Hell, I'll even be able to download a new copy from audible.com at my preferred quality level.

      All without paying extra or maintaining a subscription.

      While I'm sure the iPod compatibility helps a lot, they were doing well when they were selling their own player, and the Audible Otis was CRAP. Hell, they were doing so well, Apple approached THEM
    • From:

      http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/141620 3&from=rss [slashdot.org]

      eMusic sells straight MP3 files.

      And they even have the entirety of the Frank Zappa Library.

  • Yeah, Cool. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Vo0k ( 760020 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:49AM (#15486216) Journal
    I like the idea. I will likely subscribe. As soon as I put my hands on .mpq to .mp3 converter.

  • Not portable == Not useable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:56AM (#15486240)
    So I have that file on my computer. And then... I can listen to it every time I'm on my computer. Ok.

    I can do that already with internet radio. For free. Now, again, why should I pay for that service? I didn't quite get that part, but maybe I'm just too dumb to see the insightful, grandious idea that marketing spun there.
    • WTF? How can you compare internet radio (listening to somebody else's playlist or a professional DJ with commercials) to downloads (listening to specific tracks you want to hear)? That would be like comparing radio to an mp3 player. Sure, both can play Barry Manilow, but you can bet I'll never download anything even remotely similar.

      That's even worse than folks comparing satellite radio (hundreds of channels for content/variety junkies/cross-country drivers) to HD radio (one or two really high-def channels

  • nice system! (Score:5, Funny)

    by tehwebguy ( 860335 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @07:58AM (#15486245) Homepage
    wow this sounds like the only p2p system more annoying than kazaa!

  • Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zaphod-AVA ( 471116 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:01AM (#15486255)
    Finally we have a service that combines the advertisements we love with the digital rights management software that keeps our music safely encoded! Bonus feature: we get to enjoy the advertisements all over again when our favorite song expires!

    -Z
  • That is definitely a step in the right direction - no doubt. Kudos for marketing, strategic planning staff at emi.

    The problems they need to eliminate now are the inter-operability between devices, the 'expire' annoyance.

  • It's *NEW*! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dwandy ( 907337 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @08:10AM (#15486285) Homepage Journal
    "Working with Qtrax is just one way EMI is actively supporting emerging business models, technologies and platforms to deliver music to fans," said David Munns, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music North America.
    So is "emerging" newspeak for "10-year-old"?
  • As much as I usually side with companies on their efforts to retain profit, this proposal looks like a DOA to me for two reasons. First, the reported use of a modified tcpip.sys file makes the least informed computer user reconsider the download even if they want the premium service. If EMI has to use such an invasive procedure to reduce piracy, then why bother? I say just simply sponsor Shareaza or whatever and be done with it. As much as that sounds crazy, I bet they would see more CD sales from that than
  • So, in other words, I get pestered to listen to bad music. No thanks.
  • We've heard our fans and understood the correct way to our mutual benefits: large income for us and our artists, and affordable music with great quality, on any device - for you.

    Well, maybe not for artists, but, I mean, come on, we're doing everything 'round here.

    Not for any device, but, you could just buy a PlaysForSure player (damn you iPod!).

    Ok, not for a great price, we kinda exaggerated: no free lunch you know. In fact, you can't buy it at all, it's a monthly fee.

    The quality may suck a little, it's a l
  • Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format.

    Next thing you know, there'll be rumors flying around about how you can listen to the music in every one of Blizzard's games by plugging Bliz's *.mpq files into the Qtrax player.
  • It appears that EMI has seen that P2P can be a legitimate medium for which to distribute music to consumers, but it still has a lot to learn:

    The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft's Janus DRM technology...for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active.

    1) You don't ever own the music. It's being licensed, and as soon as you cancel your subscription, the DRM will stop the music from playing.

    2) You can't burn the music to a CD, still the most common method for playing music.

    3) You can't play the music on any portable device that doesn't support Windows Media, meaning iPod owners can't transfer the music to their iPods.

    EMI doesn't seem to understand that consumers want to take their music with them, not leave it on the computer. The #1 portable music player right now is the CD player, and iPod is #2. You can't have a viable competitor in the market if you cut off the top two music players, parading your DRM agenda. This service won't fly.

  • So taking EMI's brand do we know which arists they will be putting up? As an indy artist would I be able to put something on the network? Looks nice on paper but do we really want to install another p2p client to infect our PC's?
  • I was vaguely interested until I saw "proprietary format" that won't work in whatever player I feel like using (iTunes, or my Rio Karma, or whatever).

    There are companies such as Magnatune [magnatune.com] that'll sell you 100% legal (as opposed to "of questional legality" like AllOfMP3.com), DRM-free music, without ads, or a monthly subscription, or any other sort of nonsense. There are some really interesting artists there, too, and quite a wide range of music.

    I don't work for them or get paid by them, I just think they'r

  • Tiscali has shut down it's online JukeBox (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kooky45 ( 785515 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @09:46AM (#15486775)
    On a related note (and a story I just submitted to /.) Tiscali have just shutdown their JukeBox online music streaming service. Their reasons are given here Tiscali Jukebox switch off Q & A [tiscali.co.uk]. From the article:
    "Why have you decided to shut down the service today? Because after going online in total accordance with the music industry and having it launched officially, thus letting our users access it with the characteristics we tested and fine-tuned, today the music industry forwards unexpected demands."
    and
    "Clearly, major labels do not understand the business potential that is behind a service like Tiscali Juke Box which, by acknowledging and paying the rights for all songs being listened to in streaming mode, allows the safeguard of the rights of the industry and the artists."
  • ...will EMI's excellent (and huge) back catalog of classical recordings be available. All the article says is "EMI's catalog." But I'm not going to just assume that's everything.
  • Well, since Qtrax was developed by LTDnetwork [qtrax.com], which is a wholly own subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies Inc, which brought us the evil of Brilliant Digital Entertainment's b3d Projector [com.com], it would seem to me that the evil is just being repackaged in a different wrapper.

    Personally, BDE left such a bad taste in my mouth from the sneaky way that they tried to do things that I won't give them a second chance to make a mess on my computer. Many people have made other valid comments regarding how this platform
  • .. with DRM can easily be thwarted using an audio capture program such as GoldWave.

    If you can hear it, you can capture it using such a program.

    Their efforts won't accomplish anything. /* Begin Sarcasm */
    Unless they require us to pay a licensing fee for having ears. With the gubment passing a lot of stupid laws lately, look for a lobbyist to "convince" someone to back-door this into another bill. /* End Sarcasm*/

  • it always gets down to pricing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zogger ( 617870 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2006 @10:07AM (#15486894) Homepage Journal
    Every single one of these entertainmnet media schemes is relevant to them trying to find a way to keep making the same sort of money per copy they were back when making copies for redistribtion was expensive. Now that it has dropped to the incredibly cheap level, they will not lower prices to reflect this. Ever single one of these steps seeks to somehow keep a similar pricing level when it is not needed, they need drastically lowered prices to hold market now. And that's the problem, they simply will NOT lower prices down to a level that technological advances dictate as more fair pricing.
  • download in Qtrax's proprietary ".mpq" file format. Users will then be able to play the downloaded .mpq file in full-fidelity sound quality for a pre-defined number of times.

    I am sure most ./'ers stopped at "proprietary". When will they learn? I don't want to deal with that crap. A file that only plays "X" times before it dies? Great, I purcahsed this mighty computer with a brain the size of a planet and I am using those cycles to determine how many times I can play "yellow submarine".

    I'll just stick to
  • ... to figure out. we're gonna run into a problem regarding the loss of historical information both long term and short historical data. yeah, music, videos, and other cultural flotsom often record important insight into a culture that dry historical records do not. stone and clay tablets last for centuries and don't require a playback device/software. neither does photographic, printed material, or other analog forms of recording. creating yet another format only for the purpose of making money is reaching
  • Well yet another hair brained, illegal (more rootkitting ?) scheme from a bunch of idiots. "But they clicked yes on our EULA..."

    Honestly the ludicrous schemes that the record companies keep coming up with to stop people listening to "their product" are simply proof positive that overindulgence in cocaine rots your brain and makes you into a paranoid, vindictive, crazy egomaniac. In the future business schools will use all these awful schemes as examples of how to kill off your own industry.

    But once again

  • Previewing Music (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ab0mb88 ( 541388 )
    This service seems like an actual answer to the p2p users who defend their actions by saying that they only use p2p to preview music before they buy it. If EMI provides a way to legally listen to songs for a limited number of times for free this could be just what is needed to make this preview system valid and leave the sales model to Apple, they seem to have that market covered.

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