How to Convert Millions of BitTorrent Users to Qtrax
Written by enigmax on January 28, 2008If you’re interested in file-sharing, you can’t have failed to have heard about Qtrax, the ‘new’, ‘legal’ P2P platform for downloading as many music tracks as you like. Here’s how to easily convert millions of BitTorrent users to Qtrax users in a few simple steps.
My RSS reader is filled with Qtrax articles. Dozens of them. I want to write about BitTorrent but everyone is banging on about Qtrax, so I guess it’s only right to follow the crowd. From the look of the lovely flashy Qtrax website it seems they have everything sewn up. So, surely it’s time TorrentFreak considered a rebranding exercise to become ‘QtraxFreak’ - after all, free, legal P2P is what everyone wants, right?
Qtrax should’ve gone live today and it hasn’t, effectively ruining our chances of riding along with the Qtrax launch-day media hype, becoming QtraxFreak and converting the entire BitTorrent collective from one free service to another. Damn. Plan B.
My understanding of Qtrax, limited as it is - and, to be fair, I don’t think many of the news stories about it today are based on any sort of live test - is that it’s essentially a DRM-infested Gnutella client which converts everything you download to Windows Media DRM format - making it a sort of Dr. Frankenstein’s LimeWire, but in a bad way.
Now, please tell me if I’m wrong, as I obviously haven’t tested the service, but aren’t the files you download just like all the the others on the Gnutella network? You know the sort - they call them ‘Scene releases’ and ‘home rips’, identical to the ones you can see on LimeWire. I mean, Qtrax aren’t guaranteeing a ‘pure’ copy are they? If they are, all well and good but I can’t see it myself, something doesn’t sit right.
From their ‘legal’ page:
LTDnetwork Inc is not responsible for any content such as audio, video, text or any other file owned by users of the Qtrax/Qtraxmax software.
Is Qtrax really offering to dress up pirate MP3s from Gnutella and give them to Qtrax users, paid for by advertisers? Maybe they’ve got some sort of ‘walled-garden’ inside the Gnutella network, accessible only by Qtrax users with non-pirate copies?
..
Sorry, I just drifted off then. Got a bit carried away dreaming of getting a 64K KaZaA-quality, advertizing-supported mono rip of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, labeled up as an audiobook entitled ‘How to End Piracy Overnight’ and listening to it with sparkling Windows Media DRM. All authorized by the RIAA. Oh boy.
Ok, ok, ok, I’m being negative. I like BitTorrent and yes, that makes me biased but I have strange feelings about Qtrax and they aren’t good. Warner Music, one of the supposed partners of Qtrax said in a statement that it “has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service.”
Also, Universal Music Group and EMI Group both confirmed that they have no licensing deals with Qtrax. It’s probably not that significant that a Sony spokesman said: “Sony BMG can confirm it has not signed a deal with Qtrax for the ad-supported service”. I know, just because they say they don’t have a deal, doesn’t make it so. After all, the music companies always lie, don’t they?
I concede, I might be completely wrong about Qtrax. They probably didn’t launch today because of some minor last minute cosmetic issue with the skin on the client, and as everyone is in a meeting in Peru today, they can’t inform the masses by way of a news update on their website. Or maybe they’re adding that last minute code that somehow enables anti-piracy organizations to differentiate between Qtrax and LimeWire users on the Gnutella network.
And maybe the Big Four are probably just being coy until Qtrax really launches tomorrow by which time someone will have taken www.qtraxfreak.com. Damn.
Previously: Torrentz Shuts Down Torrent’Em For Copyright Infringement
Next: Rapidshare To Be Forced to Shut Down Following Court Defeat?
102 Responses
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Who actually thinks this will last?
i hope it does. legal p2p would be great!
First i was astonished by this new service
BUT:
the only way you could convert ‘illegal’ p2p users to ‘legal’ ones is to offer:
- free
- DRM-free
- high-quality
- legal
- high-speed
files.
Moreover using Qtrax envolves logging in to the service every 30 day else your track(trax) will be unable to use…
sux
better check out some souces like onlinemediafinder.com
What’s weird is that they say a Mac version of the software is coming out in March. Are they going to keep offering Windows DRM once the Mac version comes out?
It won’t work. Even if it’s legal…just because of DRM I won’t use it.
This one smells of a schill. BEWARE the MAN-
Qtrax says that they developed a ‘unique’ ’software’ which is able to transfer their DRM-protected songs even to an Ipod
So I guess they somehow found a way to cope with the Apple DRM FairPlay…
wtf?
i think this smells a lil fishy too, sounds a bit too good to be true, i’ll stick the .torrents for now…
the MPAA is everywhere: P2p will never be legal. Just because you paid for the film/DVD they say YOU don’t own it! PERIOD.
I’m a Mac user and am VERY LEARY of these cats…….
DRM? Not for me…
If you want to convert, you’d better have *some*thing to offer.
In this case, music.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Qtrax doesn’t have ANY contracts with the music labels !!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.slyck.com/story1645_Major_Labels_Still_Have_no_Qtrax_Deal
Its a scam.
Stay with wharever you have been using …
Erm nope.
=]
Just go to music.qtrax.com and register. Then you can browse and search through the entire catalog. Right now the site claims 9695469 tracks and 1379 users online - how many of these are actual client users and not just logged on to the web nobody knows.
All we need now is the actual client which some people claim to have gotten as betatesters yesterday or something.
A funny thing: Next to each track is an Amazon link! Like we’d buy the track when the free mp3 is right there!
Yeah, big scam coming this way.
hahaha
.
.
.
“My Man …”
go here http://www.qtrax.com/features.php - it’s their website, in the features section. Go to the plus on the top, left corner, what does it say … ? What song is it.
“A Beautiful Lie”
My man …
I don’t trust it, thats for sure. I’ll stick to my beloved BT :)
lame
OK… I understand most of you saying don’t trust it, etc, etc…
However.. don’t be so quick to stomp it to death, it’s still a step in the right direction and if this instantly fails then there will be no incentive to evolve this or a different, better service..
AT LEAST GIVE IT A CHANCE and keep an open mind.
you people are morons, just get a program that strips the drm and you have a mp3 with no strings attached. It’s not rocket science. There are already hundreds of other alternatives suck as ruckus. and again just convert the file to drm free with program of your choice, mine being sound taxi.
nice article enigmax, are you british?
havnt really looked into Qtrax yet but when i heard about it my imediate thought was “kazza” blah
qtrax was also on the tv on the news today here but i didnt see what it was about
@19 To strip DRM - this is not allowed in each county. Better you do not go this way.
@none:
no, I’m not British
Those things are DRM’ed. This doesn’t cope with the “Easy” requirement for a service to work. Having to log back to the site once in a while otherwise your song doesn’t work? Can’t transfer them to an iPod? I can do all that with torrent downloads.
I’m staying clear of this. DRM? no thanks.
It’s just some scam by some Anti-P2P company to drag people away from Bit Torrent.
If it works, post a leak of it on bit torrent :-) And We’ll find out if it’s good.
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