I just read EMI's announcement on the release of Qtrax - an ad- and subscription-supported peer-to-peer music distribution service. Let's analyze this announcement piece by piece.
"Qtrax will offer two tiers of service: the first is a free, advertising-supported tier designed to work with and filter copyrighted content from existing peer-to-peer networks. The second tier is a premium subscription service which will require a monthly fee."
Alright, so far so good. Despite my dislike for advertisements in software, the music service sounds good so far.
"In the ad-supported, free tier, users will be able to search the network for specific tracks, and those tracks registered with Qtrax will be made available for download in Qtrax’s proprietary “.mpq” file format. Users will then be able to play the downloaded .mpq file in full-fidelity sound quality for a pre-defined number of times."
Oh no!!! Not another proprietary file format. This means that I will need to use a proprietary program to listen to downloaded music and that I can't play them on my iPod. Worse, you can only play each downloaded music for limited number of times.
"The premium subscription service tier uses Microsoft’s Janus DRM technology, which allows consumers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music in the Qtrax network. Subscribers will also have the ability to transfer content to Windows Media enabled portable devices for as long as the subscription stays active."
Let me get this straight... I don't own the music but rent them? In other words, the downloaded music is only good as long as I keep paying for them.
I am also curious if I can burn my downloaded music to a CD so that I can listen to it on my CD player in my car? If the service is peer-to-peer, does it mean any songs that I am looking for are subjected to availability of these songs from peers who share them?
A week ago, I made a brief assertion that convenience is an impetus for the adoption of a technological innovation or product. Certainly, any product that makes life easier for the consumers will most likely be successful. After reading the article, I can't help but to think that Qtrax business model is doomed for failure. Why so? It seems more trouble than it is worth.
| 6/8/2006 4:34:29 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) |
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