Qtrax Signs Third Major Label Deal – with Sony
The ambitious ad-supported music service Qtrax has announced a deal with its second major label: Sony. As part of the deal, Qtrax will offer Sony’s digital music catalog for free to those who install its music downloading client.
As with Qtrax’s deals with EMI and Universal, Sony only agreed to license its regular digital music catalog, consisting of the same music it has already licensed to digital music stores like iTunes and free, ad-supported sources such as imeem and SpiralFrog.
Qtrax’s ultimate goal, however, is to go far beyond that, allowing users to download unreleased, live, rare, remixed and other major label music that’s not part of that official catalog, from Usenet or possibly another P2P source. Unlike current P2P networks, Qtrax would share ad revenue with labels and publishers of those works.
In that way, Qtrax president and CEO Allan Klepfisz told Wired.com, the company would be able to legitimately offer as many as 30 million songs as compared to the 8 million or so currently available on iTunes. That idealized offering remains a glint in Klepfisz’s eye. although it is worth noting that Qtrax has brought another major onboard for the existing version of its service.
“We are always exploring new and exciting ways of bringing our music to fans in the digital space and are very happy to support Qtrax and their innovative ad-supported business model,” stated Sony global digital business and US sales president Thomas Hesse. “Sony BMG has a well deserved reputation for innovation,” said Qtrax’s Klepfisz. “We welcome the addition of this vast and vital catalogue to Qtrax’s worldwide service,” Klepfisz continued.