Qtrax Finally Launches. Sort Of.
by
on June 20, 2008,
Qtrax finally launched, reaching a milestone that many thought would never happen. After huge delays in getting up and running, some of which led to contracts with record labels expiring and then having to be renewed, they are up and running.
Well, sort of.
Qtrax’s launch was supposed to provide free and legal music from EMI and Universal, with more labels in negotiations. But after all the delays, there are still far too many things missing. One being a version of the application for OS X. Those of us not running either Windows XP or Vista are out of luck, because no player exists for either OS X or Linux. (Back in January, they were saying that the OS X version would be released in March.) So it’s back to last.fm and iLike for me, but others thought they’d be luckier, having the requisite Windows OS.
Wired, however, fared worse than I did, since at least I didn’t have to waste any time in not getting any free and legal music. Eliot Van Buskirk quickly discovered how much of the EMI and Universal catalogs are missing (Radiohead, for instance), and was told that music is being added “daily” for users. However, even in trying to download the music that’s there, he ran into problems, since the player crashed.
Bugs are expected in a beta, but not a beta that’s been delayed for over five months. The time that the suits were spending negotiating should have given the developers every possible chance to make sure that the application was ready for primetime. At this point, covering Qtrax feels like kicking a man when he’s down, but how many chances is Qtrax relying on potential users to give it?
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Svetlana Gladkova
John Phelps
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
Hello, I Cannot Believe That You To Not See This Format As The Future? Seeing That You Have A Job Writing About The Hopeful Future? This Should Play Right Into Your Hands And Like Everything Bugs and Quirks Need To Be Worked Out.We Are Live And Working This Is A Big Step In Any Launch.Even MTV Had Troble At Their Launch.(That I Watched With My Dad Back In Old Days And Will Never Ever Forget It Changed My Life Forever) I Don’t Know How Old You Are But I Bet You Were Not There For That !!! But I Think You Should Embrace The The Future And Change Like I Saw And Felt During MTV’s Launch.Music Is The Future And Change Is Part Of Music…..If You Do Not Believe That Then You Need A New Job And Should Dig Holes For A Living ….Same Hole Same Shovel….Maybe QTRAX Won’t Make It ? Maybe My Dad Felt The Same Way About Mtv ????? He Had A Look In His Eyes That Maybe I Was Onto Something !!! LOL Maybe HE Didn’t Like What He Saw But He Knew I DID !!! ……..Take That….. And Think About It ……………….Keith P.S. MF What You Want ..The Future Of Music Depends On This New Path……..KK
Keith, I’m not sure I understand everything you said there, but I actually stayed up to watch MTV hit the air. I won’t reveal my age at the time, but yes, I remember it. My problem with Qtrax is the insane number of missteps they have made in getting what SHOULD have been an awesome product launched. People only have so much patience.
Hello , After Reading Your Review On The New Launch Of Qtrax I Felt That It Seemed Recycled From Another News Post Thats All . I Feel You Should Have Done The Test Yourself And If You Did .You Would Have A Tested Opinion Of It.I Am 37 Years Old And Very Proud Of My Music And Have Spent Well Over A 100,000 Bucks Building My Empire Of Music Of Audio And Video .And My Opinion And Judgement On Anything That Has To Do With It. I Am Not Rich Nor Do I Live That Way.But You Hit A Soft Spot When You Said Kick It While Its Down. I Do Not Think We Could Ever Get Along Anyway Because I Live Music And Love It…You Just Write About Your Opinions And Get Payed For It. I Do This For Free And Love It! The Old Saying Goes Practice What You Preace! Like I Said Before I’m 37 Maybe Your To Old For Anymore Fun Or Change In Life Not My Fault Or Qtrax For That Matter JUst Learn To Like It………Keith. …….P.S. I Have No Job With Or Need With QTRAX …..I Just Think You Should Look Before You Leap!
“People only have so much patience”. If this is true then nobody would be using Microsoft Windows. Look at all the issues and bugs over the years and look where it is today. Qtrax is still in beta and they are working out the issues. This will not keep people from using the software once it is out of Beta testing, improved and offering millions of free songs, who wouldn’t want that? I am currently using it and it is working great, not all of the songs I want are there yet, but some great ones are and I know others are soon to follow. And the user interface is the best I have ever used. I use it as my main web browser now while I’m playing free music. Give it a chance.
Users will be as patient as they have to be. The only thing that will hurt Qtrax is if another company comes out with free unlimited downloads before qtrax. Right now, Spiralfrog has a bunch of things going on, I guess.. but the bottom line is that if Qtrax tightens up the application, (which I’m sure they will since they haven’t even done PR that the Beta is out, and there are only like 7000+ users) and they finalize deals and work out portability (which I’m sure they will ONCE they finish tweaking the application), then people will use it. They won’t care about the failed launch, the bad press, which there is plenty of. They will use it because it’s free. That’s it. I love these people that expect the revolution of music to go perfectly smoothly. When the internet started, what if people said, “people won’t have patience, if they don’t make this faster and smoother, people simply will give up and not use it!” come on.
as Dr. Zhivago famously said “this baby’s got legs”
Hello, I Guess Your Off For The Rest Of The Day ?Don’t Talk The Talk If You Can’t Walk The Walk Honey……..I Remember A Girl Named Cindy She Turned Into Sin-Dee. Sorry But It Had To Cum Out.Nice Job Big Mouth !!…………Keith
Good job Keith, really ripped her a new hole. The truth is Qtrax is a start up company, and Cindy needs to understand that a start up company will face a million complications. Second rate writers is the least of their’ problems. You know what I mean Cindy? Have a great weekend. Dougcat
@ Cav, I respectfully disagree. Microsoft gained market share with good software, and their recent misstep with Vista and the rush to get the next version to market show that they know they can’t make another mistake. Apple gained a lot of market share from the Vista mess.
@ music man The issue is that there are new services launching every single day in this space. Qtrax has had a lot of time to get out of the gate first and they are bungling it every chance that they get. It’s not a matter of faster and smoother; everyone expects bumps with a beta, but not a misfire of a launch with no actual contracts signed, then a relaunch five months later with missing music and a promised Mac version two months late.
@Keith I don’t always get back to comments quickly, especially when the commenter does nothing but insult me. First, I was “too young” to understand, then too old? How about I’m a former developer who’s been in the web space for over 10 years and has seen a lot of companies fail with a much better business model and execution than Qtrax has shown so far.
@doug See above.
I agree with Cyndy. Qtrax has had over 5 months since their initial botched launch to work out the kinks, and yet, they still have far too many issues: (i) missing pages on their website, (ii) lack of available content including some advertised on their main page, (iii) the lack of a compatible Mac version promised to be released back in March, (iv) the lack of availability in other countries besides the US, (v) problems related with the actual player (despite the fact it appears to be only a skinned version of Songbird, an existing product), (vi) etc.
There’s lots of big talk coming from Qtrax, but the fact of the matter is they have offered up very little to back it up. Furthermore, I’ve read other articles where it has been proven that employees of Qtrax are attempting to dispel the negative press they are getting (and rightly deserve) by posting multiple comments questioning the integrity/claims of the authors of the articles using multiple aliases.
Lastly, companies like Microsoft and Google have gained their market share by producing quality software (not necessarily being first to market). I certainly don’t expect their software to be completely bug free, but I certainly expect a better quality product (especially given that it’s using Songbird, an existing product, as a base).
Qtrax’s unique idea for offering music certainly has potential, but overall, their execution has been abysmal at best. Right now, I think SpiralFrog is a better bet; they offer the same catalog of music, and they seem to have their affairs in order.
honestabe has got one thing wrong. It has not been proven anywhere that employees of Qtrax have been posting under multiple alias’s. My guess is abe works for spiral frog, and is trying to create rumors. Bad on ya. Show the proof, and we’ll be;leive you.
I think this is the article honestabe was referring to:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/qtrax_free_legal_music_biggest_fan
I don’t think it says anywhere it was employees of qtrax but definitely seems suspicious.
thanks Jessica, you have proven abe to be anything but honest. Notice how these people are always bringing up spiralfrog? And just for the record, people should know that a few employees of spiralfrog have moved over to Qtrax. The question begs to be asked, why are they moving over to Qtrax. O.K. Jessica, get back to work now, there’s still a lot of toilets to clean.
by the way Cyndy, after re-reading your comments, there’s only on thing left to say, you really need a good lay. I hope that works out for you.
dougcat wrote:
“O.K. Jessica, get back to work now, there’s still a lot of toilets to clean.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Are you calling me a janitor, dougcat?
If that’s how you treat people who are just trying to be helpful, you can go to hell dougcat.
I now hope Qtrax crashes and burns.
Jessica, you won’t have to wish too hard… All they have to do is continue to show the same business acumen that’s brought them to this point.
Jessica I don’t see how your’ suspicious comment is helping any. What is suspicious is that every time an article comes out for Qtrax, all the Spiralfrog advocates come out of the woodwork. Could they be employees of Spiralfrog? I will not jump to that conclusion. But I do know that Ex Spiralfrog CEO Robin Kent and CMO Lance Ford have moved over to Qtrax. Do you think they know something you don’t?