The music industry today unveiled a new, collective “peer-to-peer” network that will allow users to download from a catalogue of 25 million songs for free.

Qtrax, a digital service announced today, promises a catalogue of more than 25 million songs that users can download to keep, free and with no limit on the number of tracks.

The service has been endorsed by the very same record companies - including EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music - that have chased file-sharers through the courts in a doomed attempt to prevent piracy. The gamble is that fans will put up with a limited amount of advertising around the Qtrax website’s jukebox in return for authorised use of almost every song available.

[Australian IT]

Sounds too good to be true, right? Of course, there is a catch…

After all, the music industry, after loosing an unthinkable amount of money, wouldn’t just give away their product…

Qtrax files contain digital rights management software, allowing the company to see how many times a song has been downloaded and played. Artists, record companies and publishers will be paid in proportion to the popularity of their music, while also taking a cut of advertising revenues.

Sounds a bit like the failed copy prevention program… In other words, it appears as if, labels will know who exactly will be downloading each song. They’ll also likely be able to tell how each song is being used (ie. sharing, listening, etc.)

Oh, and of course, these downloads won’t be compatible with itunes and ipods.

Apple is unlikely to allow tracks downloaded from its rival to be compatible with iPods, but, while the iPod is the most popular music player, it has not succeeded in dominating the market: sales of the iPod account for 50 million out of 130 million total digital player sales. Qtrax has also spoken of an “iPod solution”, to be announced in April.

It certainly is way too early to judge this idea, but it doesn’t appear to be as good as it initially appeared. Still it’s a step in the right direction…

A beta version of the program will be available to download for Windows users beginning tonight. Mac users will have to wait until March 18.

[Qtrak's Official Site]

Update: Apparently the whole scheme has fallen apart…That was fast.

But the site’s launch in seven countries including the UK today was undermined when Warner Music, whose artists include James Blunt and The White Stripes, declared in a statement that it “has not authorised the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service”

Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony-BMG all later confirmed that they did not have licensing deals in place with the site, saying that negotiations are ongoing.

This means the new website has not secured a licensing agreement with any of the four largest music companies.

[Telegraph]

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