Runaway Dinosaur

At the MIDEM conference in Cannes, QTrax announced deals with all of the major music labels and publishers to offer the first free and legal ad-supported P2P service to include major label music. QTrax will have a start-up music library of over 25 million songs which is about four times bigger than iTunes and 100% free.

Update 10:52am Monday. What not to do when launching a product.

QTrax doesn’t have a deal with any of the four major music labels for the ad-supported, peer-to-peer download service it is debuting this morning.

See Alley Insider article here.

Update 8:35am Monday. Total confusion of which labels are on board.

Qtrax president Allan Klepfisz told AP that Warner was expected to agree to terms “shortly”. He claimed that all other parties had agreed to the terms but some deals were yet to be formally signed.

EMI and Universal also denied a licensing deal with Qtrax despite being in discussions with the company. Sony could not be reached for comment.

Update 5:32pm Sunday. Looks there is confusion on which labels are on board.

“Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service,” WMG spokesman Will Tanous told Silicon Alley Insider.

Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music label, doesn’t have a deal with QTrax either but is in talks with the company, says a person familiar with the situation.

The Los Angeles Times also reported on Sunday that EMI Group executives said it had not agreed terms with Qtrax.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the second largest music company, was not immediately available.

Update 3:42pm Sunday. I went to the QTrax website to try it out and they were down.

Due to overwhelming demand, Qtrax.com is currently unavailable. Please check back in 24 hours to download the first, free, and legal P2P music application. Thank you for your understanding.

Not the greatest launch.