I’m excited.

Yesterday, I listened in on an online press conference with the CEO Allan Klepfisz.  I also posed my questions on the upcoming world launch to him. The first country to launch will be Australia/New Zealand on November 5th, with a new Asian-Pacific country launching every Thursday until Christmas. According to Klepfisz, the decision to launch in  this region first is down to the high illegal download rates; over 95% of music downloads are illegal. I asked Klepfisz regarding his US and UK/European launch plans; he responded that the US would be live in Q1 next year, and the UK by February. He also noted that Qtrax had music licenses for 77 Countries worldwide; more than any other global music service. Notably, Japan has not been included in this, although India  and other majors will be.

Klepfisz also announced a partner deal with Baidu search; China’s largest online search engine, with a 70% market share. From the Chinese launch (17th Dec), visitors to Baidu’s Entertainment Portal and Qian Qian Music Online software will be redirected to Qtrax artist pages; thus providing huge numbers of traffic. Klepfisz highlighted that Qtrax would work with other local partners in other territories to gain similar deals, as well as viral marketing to gain users. The motives behind this deal seem to be China’s tightening up on Copyright Laws. Klepfisz predicts that this will further aid Qtrax in gaining users and thus revenue. Baidu is notorious for linking to millions of illegal music downloads, something that has been a major source of criticism and investigation from the copyright bodies.

Obviously revenue in an important issue to Qtrax. Spiral Frog was another free download service that failed to gain revenue, and collapsed several months ago. Klepfisz revealed that the company had managed to acquire sufficient funding, and hopes to raise a further $50 million through their financial partners in China. Lance Ford, Chief Marketing Officer highlighted their plans to utilise ads for revenue; he “forecasts good advertiser pickup” with “high quality revenue from day 1”. Both Ford and Klepfisz believe that they will “hit the ground running” through a mixture of network ads and premium ads from blue chip advertisers; they noted that the two types of ads will integrate seamlessly into the Qtrax software to engage users, not repel them. 

I was also interested in how Qtrax is different from other services, such as the massively successful Spotify. Klepfisz responded that Qtrax would use Local Music to attract visitors. Other global services are very western, and do not utilise regional music. He highlighted that only 15% of music sales in China were for Western Artists. He also pointed out that Qtrax is a download site, and not just another Spotify. He did however preach his like for the Streaming Service, but also mentioned that Qtrax is “the ultimate step”. Furthermore, he identified that Qtrax will be easy to use with Social Networking features built around Music (as opposed to Facebook/MySpace etc, which uses music as an add-on).

Next, Klepfisz talked on the ability of Qtrax to attract users from illegal services, such as BitTorrent. His argument was that Qtrax will provide a superior user experience; a highspeed browser with “10 second downloads”, a good quality site and a full music catalogue. Another feature shows was the link in with other sites; Qtrax will link artist pages to sites such as TicketMaster and Amazon, providing users with the ability to buy merchandise and concert tickets from within the software; something that will also serve as an additional revenue stream. Next Klepfisz mentioned that Qtrax will have more than just downloads like a BitTorrent site; ie. Artist Information (nothing groundbreaking).

A final point I asked the Australian CEO was about DRM and Portability. Unfortunately Qtrax will use the system to track music usage. In addition, music will only be playable within the Qtrax player, (in order to keep users within the environment). A good piece of news on this subject was however that Portability would be available up to two weeks after each territory launch. Unfortunately, iPods won’t be supported at immediately, however Klepfisz promised that Qtrax will investigate possible deals with Apple on the issue. He promised that an iPhone App was in the pipeline. 

It’s great to hear that Qtrax may finally be coming. The service has been several years in the making, and has always been hope that free, legal music would happen. My only concern now is on uptake. If the company can do a ‘Spotify’ and capture the youth market, then may have a hope. A large user base would be the necessary bargaining chip for the company to survive and ultimately succeed in a notoriously tough industry. After all,  that’s Show Business.    

JK  

Qtrax, a service hoping to offer unlimited free music downloads in exchange for ads, is being sued by Oracle USA, in a lawsuit filled in the California Northern District Court, on July 21st.

The service, which has been riddled with setbacks and delays, had finally announced a Global Launch on the 22nd July 2009. However, the company failed to reach this, with the site still advertising it’s Preview version, with downloads suspended since the 21st: the date of the lawsuit. Are they related?

Qtrax uses Oracle software to power it’s music database. The exact reason for the lawsuit,  is as yet unknown, and Qtrax has kept tight lipped. Unfortunately, it looks like Qtrax will yet again fail to launch.

JK

James says
    Hi
4421421 / Kyle says
    Hi you are through to Kyle at Blyk, how can I help?
James says
    Hi. Is it true that Blyk will shortly be terminating service and licensing to Orange?
4421421 / Kyle says
    No it is not. If you want company changes you are best off checking the corporate website, Blyk.com.

 

I was myself a member of Blyk for around a year (see here), in which time I experienced numerous problems with the service. Recently, rumours have been spread of a possible Licensing Deal with Orange, for them to provide a free, ad-supported service, basically a repackaged Blyk, see here.

I do however still see this happening. In this recession, startups like Blyk are in danger. Their recent reduction to £15 a month free credit indicated a poor financial situation. Joining leauges with a major player like Orange would be hugely benneficial. We’ll have to wait and see.

JK 

So it has faster speed, a better camera and a bunch of new features, it basically is the same phone.

And Apple are giving the old 3G version of the phone the updated firmware. So basically… what is the point? And why could they have built in the new hardware in the previous version??? I guess they wouldn’t be able to then market a new one and MAKE MORE MONEY. (The three M’s). Come on Apple! Give us something really new. And cheaper please.

JK

Bing: the new Microsoft search engine. Now available in Beta in the UK!

I was quite intrigued to test Bing, and find out what the fuss is about. Since Microsoft are rumored to be spending $100 million advertising Bing, there must be something special. Surely.

My first thought on loading the Bing Homepage was wow! It looks really nice, with some really great background pictures. On my 4mb Internet Connection, the picture did take a moment to load.

I then did a quick search: camera. It seemed like a good plan, and I was expecting some shopping listings, as shown in the Bing preview video.

I was disappointed with what I got. Just links, like Google. Wow. Obviously shopping and other cool new features are only going to be available in the US, at least for a while. This seems typical, as UK users always seem to get left out

However, there are some cool features working in the UK! Such as the live preview pain: this is quite a good idea on Microsoft’s part, and something that I think I will actually use. It would be easier and quicker though to have the orange dot on the other side of the listing. (You’ll see what I mean when you try).

Another good development is the ability to preview videos. Like the Preview Pain, this cuts down the amount of clicking needed for searching.

You can also watch the full video through Bing.

My first impressions of Bing is that it’s a great search engine, that I will continue to use. I would like to see the full features that are available in the US in the UK though. The questions everyone seems to be asking is Bing vs. Google. I think that Bing takes the prize: something I never expected to think.

JK

JK

The iPhone is such a cool piece of kit, with thousands of cool little apps. After seeing the massive campaign of ads for this iPod come phone, you would be forgiven in thinking that you couldn’t live without one.  I’ll tell you, very easily actually.

Like many other people, I wanted one! The thing that put me off though was signing up to a long 18 month o2 contract, (In the UK, Apple has an exclusivity deal with o2).

Also, the fact that the contract really isn’t that good a deal, and you have to pay for the phone! In the UK, this is like the ultimate mobile sin.

But my opinion on the iPhone changed dramatically when I actually tried using one. Of course, the interface was sleek, and the apps in particular are much better than that of a Blackberry. I’ve always been a fan of iTunes too, so that was a plus. However, the camera is terrible, only 2mp with no flash or autofocus, and the worst part is texting. I absolutely hate the virtual keyboard.

It’s not like I’m new to touch screen phones: my current phone is the Prada Phone by LG (Model 1). I can text on it just as fast as on a physical keyboard. It’s because it uses a standard phone key set on the virtual keyboard. As a result, it’s very easy to use, as the buttons are large.

On the iPhone however, I find each QWERTY key too small. I end up never getting the right letter, and I actually have fairy dextrose hands.

I’ve heard a landscape keyboard will be introduced in the next firmware update, (v3.0). This is by far something that should have been released in the beginning. I’m still skeptical of how easy the keyboard will be to use, even in landscape. Before I even consider buying an iPhone, I will definitely have to try it first. 

JK

The Pirate Bay founders have now be sentenced to one year in prison, and a huge £3 Million fine. There site is the webs biggest illegal file sharing website, and home to free downloads of Music, Videos and Software. But will this be the end of the site?

I don’t believe so. The site has already survived a raid, and if it did go down, there’s always another site to instantly take its place. But I don’t believe this is the real question. The question we shoudl be asking is one of morality: Is file sharing right?

Of course, the content creators need to make a living; their job is making Music/Movies/Software or whatever. But are any of these people empoverished? Madonna/Britney Spears/Take That? The music industry is worth several billion dollars. 

The Internet has arrived, and its popularity is reflected by the huge number of users of Facebook and Myspace. The Music and Movie industry need to embrace this. Record Artists make a huge proportion of their money through Touring and Merchandise. If the music is out their, then maybe more people will start listening to it. I believe that the time has passed from where Music was paid for, and delivered in physical form. Piracy will never be defeated, beacause so many people are not willing to pay for their music anymore. The Industry should stop being in denial of this, and accept it, and develop.

JK

(I’ll review Twitter soon)

I primarily use a HP Compaq Desktop PC, for day-to-day uses. It has an AMD 64 Dual Processor, 1gb of ram and an 120gb hard-drive. I also have a Acer Netbook, running Linux, and an old eMac, running OS X Tiger. While all three computers run and look differently, they all do the same things. 

On my Desktop, I use Windows Vista. In my opinion, it is a good OS, and I’ve never really had a problem, except once when I installed a bad driver. Lesson learnt. The whole world though seems to be against Vista and why? It’s really not that bad! 

I think perhaps if people actually gave it a go, without having preconceived ideas, built up by those dam Apple ads, then they may feel differently. I’m looking forward nevertheless to Windows 7. As I wrote in my review in January, Windows 7 is an excellent upgrade to Vista.

JK