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438 Comments
- ggnictee, on 01/28/2008, -23/+943Dear Music and Movie Guys,
I don't want free music/movies (well ok I do but I'm very willing to pay for music). What I want is to buy a song and be able to have it on my computer, ipod, iphone and the computer in the living room. I don't want to buy a song 4 times. That's dumb.
I don't want to buy a DRM. I don't believe I'm buying anything if you still control how it's used. That's a rental. If I wanted to rent it I would have. I wanted to own it, all by myself.
I think $.99 is too much for music that's over 20 years old. I can at least understand the justification for charging more for new releases, but there should be a $.50 price point.
While we're on the subject: digital versions of a movie shouldn't cost as much as the hard copy version. Especialy if they don't have all the 'bonus' features.
If a product is ready to be released: release it. Let me watch movies when and where I would like to watch them. If I go to the theater and see a movie I want to share with my family/friends I would rather stay home and watch it with them. If the movie isn't available to purchase people are going to A) skip it. or B) download it. But if I could buy it on my way out of the theater; I probably would. (Don't worry, we both know I'll buy the directer cut later.)
So here is my plea to you: I have money. I am more then willing to give it to you. But I need you to meet me in the middle. I watch commercials for free TV (or hulu (I actually really like hulu, if they'd update it every once in awhile and put the back catalog on there)) and I'm willing to put up with commercials for music: but I'm not putting any tracking system on my computer.
And before you say "but you can't make money selling something people can get for free" you'll have to tell me companies make billions every year selling bottled tap water.
I promise we'll buy your music and movies. You just have to give us a chance. I can't buy what's not there. - Jenadae, on 01/28/2008, -0/+177Ad-supported? Last time i installed something like that i had a purple ape telling me where to shop.
- cambrown99, on 01/28/2008, -5/+165I've said for a long time that the issue for the record companies (aka the RIAA) is not primarily about money. They certainly want your money, but the bigger issue is about control. They want to control what you hear, when you hear it, and where you get it. For pretty much all of the 20th century they succeeded in doing that. The internet has screwed that up for them, because now a band like Radiohead, or even an unknown garage band, can completely bypass them and sell their music on the internet. Now Radiohead still can't get into the brick-and-mortar stores without being distributed by the Industry or get their songs played on the radio (a completely different corruption), but give it another year or two--when more artists start becoming hugely profitable outside 'the system', you'll start to see a willingness from retail and radio to bypass the withering RIAA as well.
And THAT'S the day we can hold the official funeral for the RIAA. I'm crossing my fingers for sooner rather than later. - Charlatan22, on 01/28/2008, -0/+131I bet this is gonna suck. I'll stick to my good old fashioned pirating.
- t3soro, on 01/28/2008, -2/+115"99 cents is almost nothing."
***** adds up - gummih, on 01/28/2008, -2/+104I’m amazed that people would steal James Blunt's music
- ravage86, on 01/28/2008, -2/+93"Nor is a lack of compatibility with the iPod player expected to put fans off. Apple is unlikely to allow tracks downloaded from its rival to be compatible with iPods..."
It would work fine if you released MP3s.
Seriously, why have drm if its free anyways? Why does the music industry always insist on being such a pain in the ass. - DarkDx, on 01/28/2008, -6/+91IT'S A TRAP
- DarkDx, on 01/28/2008, -2/+81IT'S A TRAP
- mbawg, on 01/28/2008, -5/+80
Read the fine print... Can anyone say entrapment?
As a condition of your license to use QTRAX/QTRAXMAX, you warrant to us that you will not use QTRAX/QTRAXMAX for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms and conditions or under the applicable law of the land in which you reside.
We have no control over the information and data being disseminated or contained on any Gnutella network. You are ultimately responsible for the material you choose to upload, download and share with others. You will be personally liable for downloading and/or sharing infringing materials or copyrighted works.
We are, however, conscious of the legal issues involving sharing of certain types of files and ultimately these issues will be decided by the Courts or an Act of Parliament/Congress.
In the mean time, however, we expect all users of QTRAX/QTRAXMAX to comply with applicable laws, to respect the moral and legal rights of copyright authors and owners, and to use the Gnutella network in a responsible and law abiding way. While ideas are not fully protectable (only the expression of ideas), users who do share their own ideas with others expect others not to steal their protected works. THEREFORE, DO NOT STEAL FILE TYPES WHICH YOU DO NOT HAVE A LAWFUL RIGHT TO OWN OR USE. - AndyStitzer, on 01/28/2008, -5/+69Well said
- complexigon, on 01/28/2008, -8/+71The site says "No Adware" as a selling point, but it's ad-supported which makes is adware by definition. Isn't this false advertising?
- ravage86, on 01/28/2008, -0/+60The iPod supports MP3s, the music industry just can't stop being a pain in the ass. This is proof that they just don't get it.
- peaceninja, on 01/28/2008, -4/+57anybody who uses nested parentheses when writing a paragraph is undoubtedly an ex-LISP programmer
- Smaulz, on 01/28/2008, -1/+52Having his smiled returned from across the room, skippyisforyou's heart fluttered. Was ORMEs just being polite? Did ORMEs really like him back? Where would it all lead?
- supermajic, on 01/28/2008, -0/+49I think I'll wait and see. Something about this seems extremely fishy.
- Tiak, on 01/28/2008, -2/+49Am I the only one that was expecting this story to be from the onion?...
- chingy1788, on 01/28/2008, -1/+46whats 1000 $0.99?
oh thats right $990 - BillDoE, on 01/28/2008, -1/+46Qtrax says "No Adware".
LA Times says "The service scours pirate networks for songs, then delivers them as downloads to the computers of fans willing to have ads play while they listen"
"Although the downloads will reside on the users' computers, they will have some rights restrictions. At least initially, users wont' be able to listen to songs without the player filling the screen and showing ads. They will be able to use the Internet simultaneously only in a window within the player." - mightyjlr, on 01/28/2008, -8/+53"...but, while the iPod is the most popular music player, it has not succeeded in dominating the market..."
umm, I'm pretty sure the iPod is dominating the market... - Malevolant, on 01/28/2008, -2/+41I can't DL it yet but is it only streaming to your pc or can you actually DL the song?
Any DRM?
Mozilla browser only is surprising but cool.
Call me paranoid, but until someone reverse engineers the binairies, I am a bit paranoid to install it. I simply do not trust anyone, or anything, affiliated with records labels.
I will take a wait and see approach, until this application proves itself to be on the up and up, and not a wolf in sheep's clothing. - thegarner, on 01/28/2008, -3/+41"The singer James Blunt gave Qtrax a cautious welcome. “I’m amazed that we now accept that people steal music,” he said. “I was taught not to steal sweets from a sweet shop.”
No-one cares what James Blunt thinks - misterFR33ZE, on 01/28/2008, -5/+42DO NOT download this. 3 of the 4 big companies have not signed deals, while the 4th could not be reached for comment. This is definitely a scam, though its not clear who they are trying to ***** with. Give it time, if it isn't a scam you can download the supposed 30 million songs another day. Just wait it out, this will either catch the mainstream for being revolutionary or a fraud.
- amermoose, on 01/28/2008, -15/+51but the ipod doesn't support it...
- porygon111, on 01/28/2008, -1/+36I'm going to stick with torrents. They are already perfect.
- dlichteman, on 01/28/2008, -19/+53Windows only, Mac OSX beta comes later(march 18). Once again those of us not running windows get ***** by the long dick of DRM.
- bjornski, on 01/28/2008, -10/+43Or maybe they're focusing on the 90% of the market first, while working on the other 10% soon after.
They're not leaving you out, they're working on it, and you yourself showed that. But I guess since you didn't get it FIRST, it's a big conspiracy.
Seriously, Mac users just have to bitch about everything, don't they? - laaabaseball, on 01/28/2008, -1/+34DRM MUSIC IS CRAP! I'D RATHER PAY A NOMINAL FEE THAN HAVE TO DEAL WITH DRM *****!
[and now i go back to TPB] - blackmage439, on 01/28/2008, -0/+32BONZAI BUDDY!!!
I hated that little *****... - thegiraffe, on 01/28/2008, -2/+33I'm reposting research from somethingawful.com user Meggido here:
"I almost cannot believe the ***** that some media outlets have swallowed from this company. Here's what I've gathered, and I should point out that I know virtually nothing about financial markets, filings, etc. For starters, Brilliant Technologies tried to use a struggling Georgia-based flooring company called The Flooring Zone (a failed laminate flooring chain of all things) as a shell to get an OTCBB securities listing. That deal fell through and Brilliant Technologies is still listed on the Pink Sheets, a high-risk securities listing for developmental and small ventures that aren't required to submit filings to the SEC or be audited. They can't get on the OTCBB themselves because they have been late submitting three filings with the SEC, hence they tried (unsuccessfully) to hoodwink the poor folks at The Flooring Zone, who need cash desperately, but not desperately enough to deal with these guys.
The filings they have made consistently state that they have "entered into" deals with EMI, WMG, and SonyBMG (the implication being copyright holders, not publishers), though they also claim to have made deals with majors' publishing rights arms. But the next paragraph says that all that is necessary to launch is "...finalizing Agreements with the Major Labels which is expected in the near term." And they don't even claim to have a deal with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Then much later in the filing they list the actual agreements, all of which deal solely with music publishing rights, not with rights to distribute copyrighted content - and they are in default on some of the agreed payments.
But by far the best part is that their Director (accountant?) Chai Ong has an MBA from "Canada."
Apparently the only 30 million this company will ever be associated with is the $30 million they've lost since 1999."
Looks like an investor scam. - mbawg, on 01/28/2008, -5/+31Probably too good to be true. The recording industry has yet to "get it right."
- RP53, on 01/28/2008, -1/+27Remember kids, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
- atheinostic, on 01/28/2008, -0/+26I don't mind paying the artists for music.
I do mind when most of the money I spend on music goes not to the artist but to an oligopoly of parasites.
I do mind subsidizing their manipulation of our legal system, their attempts to sue file sharers en masse, their attempts to control music they've already sold to the customer by claiming it is still their property, ....
They are merely parasites, contributing nothing and feeding off the work of others. In an actual free market economy, they would already be a non-factor because the ability to distribute music on the internet is rendering inferior, physical distribution mechanisms increasingly obsolete. They exist now as they are because they have used their money and power to entrench themselves legally in our system.
I have a problem paying for that. - pabloD, on 01/28/2008, -2/+27Here's a catch, FTA:
"As with iTunes, customers will have to download Qtrax software. They will own the songs permanently but will be encouraged to “dock” their player with the store every 30 days so it can gather information on which songs have been played."
What's wrong with regular ol' mp3's? Oh, that's right, you relinquish all control over your sheep—er, customers.
No thanks, you fail. - jascination, on 01/28/2008, -2/+27I'm sure a majority of people downloaded it for free to hear the songs first, and would have gladly paid afterwards if the album was worth it.
Sadly, it wasn't. - michrech, on 01/28/2008, -2/+27I do that (on occasion (no, really!!)), but am not any sort of programmer (though, I recently (with Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition) taught myself (just) enough to create a simple program that sends commands to serial ports to control some hardware).
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -1/+26"Warner, UMG, EMI: No Deals With Free Music Service QTrax (WMG)"
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/warner-were-no ...
Also, it was supposed to be launched by now and still isn't available... suspicious? - t3soro, on 01/28/2008, -3/+28RTFA there is drm.
the record companies still dont get it. - jazzfudge, on 01/28/2008, -3/+27Labels back away from Qtrax.
THREE of the "big four" record labels have reportedly denied signing any deals with free music download service Qtrax....
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23121891-1702 ...
It was 2 good to be true... Just have to wait and see now what happens. - dtele, on 01/28/2008, -0/+22According to this article, the big three music companies HAVE NOT signed deals & Sony has not replied. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,2564 ...
- treeflappa, on 01/28/2008, -2/+24Adware are different to ad's. Adware resides in your pc, ad's are merely visual.
- lithos76, on 01/28/2008, -0/+22Found this in another article about Qtrax:
"Downloads however come with copy-protection technology known as digital-rights management, or DRM, to prevent users from burning copies to a CD and calculate how to divvy up advertising sales with labels.
Qtrax downloads can be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players, however."
The man is watching you baby - gummih, on 01/28/2008, -0/+22I have an iPod, an mp3 enabled phone, I like to have all my music on a single computer and stream it to other computers (Linux and Windows) I like to send my wife some songs with a specific meaning and I also like to burn mp3 CDs for my car! I don't want DRM, I don't want an "iPod solution", just sell me the damn mp3s!
- Mike89, on 01/28/2008, -0/+21Sometimes I go to do it, then figure it's not proper English so sort of fudge it like:
"This is my sentence (and my sub thought here [based on the fact that blah])"
So that, you know, people will be able to parse my brackets easily.. then I realise thinking 'people' and 'parse' in the same thought means I should spend less time geeking out and more time GOING out. - Xocide, on 01/28/2008, -5/+25Live Free (of DRM) or Die Hard.
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -1/+21The splash page of QTRAX.COM has a picture of a hand flipping the bird! Wonder what that means.
- RustyJ, on 01/28/2008, -2/+22It's actually instrumental to our sustinence.
We don't survive without 2 hours of whining about poorly ported software every day. Then we all like to beat off onto iPhones.
every one of us. - BillDoE, on 01/28/2008, -0/+19Shoot, I forgot to mention that they lied and these record companies haven't even signed the agreement yet.
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -2/+20what's the catch.
these are companies, the fundamental reason of their existence is the generation of profit. economics 101. - renegadeafk, on 01/28/2008, -0/+16"Although the downloads will reside on the users' computers, they will have some rights restrictions. At least initially, users wont' be able to listen to songs without the player filling the screen and showing ads. They will be able to use the Internet simultaneously only in a window within the player."
Nuff said.
Umm, I think I'd rather pirate. -
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