

It's fitting, in a way, that a service that bills itself as "the world's first free and legal peer-to-peer music service" doesn't offer a single song.

Qtrax, the service in question, claimed last week to have deals in place with all four major labels to offer a free, ad-supported music service. Qtrax admitted Monday that it lacks active deals with any of them, which might explain the total absence of downloadable songs on the service.

A quick test Monday revealed that the songs listed in Qtrax's slick, Songbird-based interface cannot be downloaded, putting the service in more or less the same holding pattern it's been in for four and a half years: waiting for label approval.

Download the Qtrax player, and you'll be able to play the songs youalready own. You'll also see songs in the massive, over-25-million-songcatalog that Qtrax claims it will offer soon. When – if ever – you'llbe able to download those tunes from Qtrax remains to be seen. Three of the four major labels confirmed on Monday that negotiations were ongoing, although neither they nor Qtrax would discuss the status of those negotiations.

The Big Four major labels have licensed other free, ad-supported services (imeem, Last.fm, SpiralFrog),

so Qtrax's misleading launch announcement seemed plausible enough overthe weekend. But, pending licensing deals the company says are coming"shortly, upon final execution of all pertinent contracts," songscannot be downloaded from the service.

So was Qtrax's announcement some sort of sick joke? Why did the company claim that the deals were in place?

One answer lies in the massive amount of media attention garnered bythe announcement. (Regrettably, I was an unwitting participant: In thefuture, when a company claims to have deals with all four major labels,

I'll make at least four phone calls before writing a single word.)

But there are shreds of truth to Qtrax's claims, despite itsconfounding launch strategy. The company has signed deals with majorlabels in the past. In one case (EMI), the deal expired before thelaunch announcement, and in another (Sony/BMG), the deal only coveredlimited-play downloads, not the unlimited-listening downloads Qtraxclaimed it would offer. And in some cases, Qtrax has deals withpublishers allowing it to make and distribute copies of songs, butlacks deals with labels that would allow users to hear them.

Isn't copyright law great?

Qtrax maintains that the labels will sign their contractssoon, and that users can expect to receive activation keys shortly thatwill allow downloading to begin. We shall see. Until then, Qtrax isjust another music playback program, albeit one developed by a companywith a questionable grip on reality.

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