Music Ally

The latest excuse proffered by Qtrax for a failure to launch? Kidney stones. The company cancelled a planned press conference on Christmas Eve due to CEO Allan Klepfisz being taken ill.

“Yes, it is true that we intended having a Press Conference today,” said a blog post. “And it’s also true, that in the last week, our CEO, became ill with a generally non-life-threatening but quite painful ailment- kidney stones. And it is also true he was admitted to hospital & thankfully is leaving today. So we’ve decided to cancel the conference.”

After taking its mandatory pop at its blogging detractors, the company says it will launch in January. Really. “Are we? Yes. Have we been wrong before? Humiliatingly, yes. Will be wrong this time? No.”

UPDATE: We have closed the ability to comment on this post, and unapproved the existing comments. There are plenty of sites for people to libel Qtrax and each other – but this isn’t one of them!

Previously chairman and CEO of advertising giant Universal McCann, then CEO of Spiralfrog, now founder of Rebel Digital, Robin Kent understands the economics of ad-supported media from both sides of the desk. We talked to him for a feature in the latest Music Ally Report, which subscribers can read here – while non-subscribers can sign up for a free trial.

However, we’re going to be breaking out Q&As from the feature throughout this week, for our ‘Can Music Be Free?’ focus. Starting with Robin, who we asked about everything from Spotify to major labels. Find the Q&A after the jump.

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Around five million songs a day are being downloaded from Google’s ad-supported music service in China, according to its partner Orca Digital. The service, which launched in March, has signed up five advertisers so far, including Nokia, Apple and Volkswagen, who are spending a total of 2.5 million yuan (around $370,000).

Orca says it expects to have 30 advertisers signed up within the next six months, and that by the end of this year, the service will have a catalogue of 1.1 million tracks.

But what about rival search engine Baidu? Earlier this week, ad-supported music service Qtrax announced a deal with Baidu that would see the latter funneling music search traffic to Qtrax. However, the deal was announced by Qtrax rather than Baidu – which now seems significant.

Why? Here’s a new quote from Baidu’s spokesperson. “The partnership with Qtrax regards text-based information, such as singer backgrounds; it has nothing to do with the music itself”.

Correction: We’ve been contacted by Qtrax regarding a misquote in the original article that we referenced. Here is the updated quote:

“According to Qtrax’s agreement, Baidu will direct traffic to Qtrax from two specific portals, the Entertainment Portal and the Qian Qian Music Online sites, when Qtrax has the queried artist or song in its catalogue.  The Baidu artist pages will include a button linking to Qtrax for artists in the Qtrax catalogue.”

Qtrax boss Allan Klepfisz has been blogging again, and in between laying into recent coverage by an unnamed journalist (presumably CNET’s Greg Sandoval), he talks launch specifics. Qtrax will now launch, he says, in nine Asia-Pacific countries on 29th October – including China. That’s a significant shift from its original plans to go live in the US first.

“We won’t be nobbled. And we will launch,” he writes, before making a veiled threat to doubters. “The underminers can continue to undermine. But we are going to strike back. By exposing. By protecting. And if necessary, by utilizing the legal system.”

China is shaping up as a fascinating market, what with Apple on the verge of signing an iPhone deal, Spotify partnering with TOM Online to launch its service there, Google already offering free ad-funded music downloads, and now Qtrax targeting it as a launch market.

What’s happening with ad-supported downloads service Qtrax? Well, boss Alan Klepfisz recently wrote a super-long blog post with some details.

It’s pretty emotional stuff, too: he admits that the company has chucked out several versions of its software, gone through “two sets of expensive licenses with the music industry”, and suffered the “spectacular international humiliation” of its aborted launch last year.

He also says lack of cash has delayed the service’s relaunch, but that the date will be announced imminently on the back of new funding. “We are nothing if not dogged. And stubborn. And determined,” he writes.

What’s not mentioned are any of the lawsuits faced by Qtrax in recent months (as originally highlighted on Wayne Rosso’s blog, with a new one filed on 21 July). Of course, Rosso has since started helping The Pirate Bay’s prospective new owners Global Gaming Factory X with business development – meaning the rivalry between the all-new TPB and Qtrax could see a few sparks flying.

Ad-supported music firm Qtrax has announced three new appointments, including two new advisory board members. The most high-profile is Jay Berman, former CEO of recording industry body IFPI, who’s becoming co-chairman of Qtrax’s advisory board along with Larry Gan.

In the announcement, Berman says he’s been assisting Qtrax for the last year, and that its service is a “paradigm shift” for the music industry. It was certainly a paradigm shift for successful launches. Meanwhile, Michael Firetti has joined as director and executive vice president of global strategic alliances. However, he too has been involved with Qtrax for a while, as president and CEO Allan Klepfisz makes clear.

“Mike first became involved with us as an investor about 12 months ago and has, since then, brought in an array of additional investors that, in aggregate, have accounted for a substantial percentage of the funds we have raised to date. His appointment as a Board Director and EVP will allow Mike to utilize his considerable skills to make a further, ‘hands on’ contribution to the company.”

Qtrax has signed several licensing deals since that disastrous launch earlier this year, but it still has work to do – particularly now it’s facing competition from a new wave of ad-supported streaming services like MySpace Music and Imeem.

EMI has made a dramatic leap into the ad-supported music downloads market, inking deals with both Qtrax and SpiralFrog. The Qtrax deal includes all of EMI’s digital catalogue that’s been cleared for subscription services, although Qtrax hasn’t started processing the songs yet – so they won’t be available for a while. Ironically, EMI was the first label to ever commit to Qtrax way back in June 2006 (more…)

Qtrax has finally signed a licensing deal with a major label, in the form of Universal Music Group. Don’t worry: UMG is actually quoted in the press release this time, so the deal does exist. At the same time, Qtrax has announced a deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. It’s not clear how soon UMG’s catalogue will be (more…)