Warner Music Goes P2P. Qtrax to Offer More Music Downloads

Qtrax strikes deal with Warner Music offering the latter's music catalogue for free download

At the end of last year we reported that Qtrax, the ad-supported online music sharing service added Sony on its partners list. The deal meant that Qtrax would offer Sony's digital music catalog for free to users who install on their computers its music downloading client.

Now, Qtrax has caught another big cat – Warner Music. That’s right, the record company will make its full music catalogue available for free through the Qtrax’s sharing service, a service that employs an ad-supported delivery model designed to "easily and accurately" direct revenue back to artists and copyright owners, and relies on Windows Media DRM.

President and CEO of Qtrax Allan Klepfisz pointed out the importance of the service as a valid alternative to illegal downloading: "The Qtrax platform incorporates a unique legal peer-to-peer experience that we strongly believe will compete favorably with illegal sites and will prove the ad supported model to be a viable and valuable alternative in the future monetizing of free music."

Similarly to illegal pee-to-peer downloads, Qtrax users download and install a client that allows them to search for and download tracks.

The big difference is that all files downloaded through Qtrax come encoded with DRM preventing you from copying them to your friends or have them on your iPod. Allegedly, the tracks will support all Windows Mobile devices pretty soon.
Files can only be played back through the Qtrax player, which includes ads and sponsorship that covers the licensing price of the track. The player must be connected to the internet to play songs.

Qtrax player (which must be connected online to play music files) is developed on the open-soure Mozilla platform and includes browser, genre and playlist options. It also plays music purchased via iTunes.

For now only US residents are able to use the service but, to be honest, this will hardly sadden the other continents.