Correction: I originally posted that Qtrax uses MusicIP. According to a PR representative from that company, Qtrax has no deal with MusicIP--the companies have talked, but no deal has been signed. Apologies for not double-checking all my facts.
I was finally able to get the Qtrax 0.2 beta client, and it's clearly based on Songbird.
The ads work, the downloads don't.
(Credit: Screenshot)Songbird defies easy summarization: it's an open-source project, based on the Mozilla platform, that intends to ease the creation of digital media apps. The basic app is a straightforward music library organizer and player (some of Songbird's founders worked on Winamp), and Songbird offers resources for developers to create customized versions of this basic player (think APIs, documentation, sample code, a loose license, and so on). It's an intriguing project, but I hadn't seen any compelling reason to download it.
The experience is akin to using a skinned version of Firefox: the "browser" appears in the middle of the screen, and defaults to a Qtrax page that offers featured artists, such as Foo Fighters and Amy Winehouse. Surrounding this screen are various other UI elements, including the all-important advertisements. From the home page, you can register via a link on the upper right-hand side of the page (see screenshot), and once you've confirmed your registration via e-mail, you're ready to use Qtrax's search engine to find songs. These songs aren't stored in any Qtrax database.
Qtrax found my test case, UFO's "Love to Love"--about 10 different versions, in fact--but the download button gave me an disappointing but not surprising message that downloads are coming soon. Apparently until the licensing deals are worked out, there's no there there.
To register with Qtrax, download the client, follow a download link from the front page, and follow the "Register" link from the upper-right hand corner. But once you've done that, you'll still be waiting for downloads to be enabled.
(Credit: Screenshot)Qtrax is the first free and legal music download service that sounds promising enough to check out. (They claim it's a "P2P" service, but I'm not sure you can upload anything, so that disqualifies it in my book.)
They're advertising 25 million tracks, and claiming that all four majors are onboard, although Warner apparently begs to differ. Files are encrusted with DRM, but only to prevent users from burning them to a CD--transfers to any Windows Media-compatible portable music player are OK, and iPod support is promised later this year. (Qtrax hasn't said whether this is a reverse-engineering kludge like RealNetworks pulled off a few years back or if Apple's actually taking the unprecedented step of licensing FairPlay.) It's advertising-supported, but ads are easily ignorable, and I was planning on transferring songs to my Zune anyway--there's no way to display ads there.
Or not.
(Credit: Qtrax)So I was looking forward to downloading the Firefox-based client, downloading some new-ish music I'm still on the fence about (LCD Soundsystem), experimenting with older music I've been meaning to check out but never have (where to start with the Jesus Lizard?), and testing the depth of their catalog with some '70s metal ballads I'd never buy but might someday want to hear just for old times' sake (UFO's "Love to Love," Blue Oyster Cult's "I Love the Night").
The beta software is supposed to be "available at midnight, EST!" (Their exclamation point, not mine.) The servers were so overloaded for the first 20 minutes, the site kept timing out. Now, at 35 after, the download page is showing up, but there's nothing there to download.
If first impressions are anything to go by, Qtrax fails. But I'll give it another chance tomorrow and let you know if it's worth the download.
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