Annie Shum’s original thinking has often been quoted in this blog. Her insights are always characterized by seeing the world through the prism of fractals principles.  And, she always relentlessly pursues the connecting of the dots. In this guest post, she examines in an intriguing manner both the tactical and the strategic aspects of large scale testing in the cloud.

Here is Annie:

Invariably, the underlying questions at the heart of every technology or business initiative are less about technology but, as Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine observed, more about the people (generally referred to as the users and consumers in the IT industry). For example, “How does this technology/initiative impact the lives and productivity of people?” or “What happens to the uses/consumers when they are offered new power or a new vehicle of empowerment?” Remarkably, very often the answers to these questions will directly as well as indirectly influence whether the technology/initiative will succeed or fail; whether its impact will be lasting or fleeting ; and whether it will be a strategic game-changer (and transform society) or a tactical short-term opportunity.

One can approach some of the Cloud-friendly applications, e.g. large scale QA and load stress testing in the Cloud, either from a tactical or from a strategic perspective. As aforementioned, the answer to the question “What happens to the uses/consumers when they are offered new power or a new vehicle of empowerment?” can influence whether a new technology initiative will be a strategic or tactical. In other words, think about the bacon-and-eggs analogy where the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. Look for new business models and innovation opportunities by leveraging Cloud Computing that go beyond addressing tactical issues (in particular, trading CapEx for OpEx). One example would be to explore transformative business possibilities stemming from Cloud Computing’s flexible, service-based delivery and deployment options.

Approaching Large-scale QA and Load Stress Testing in the Cloud from a Tactical Perspective

Nowadays, an enterprise organization is constantly under pressure to demonstrate ROI of IT projects. Moreover, they must be able to do this quickly and repeatedly. So as they plan for the transition to the Cloud, it is only prudent that they start small and focus on a target area that can readily showcase the Cloud potential. One of the oft-touted low hanging fruit of Cloud Computing is large scale QA (usability and functionality) testing and application load stress testing in the Cloud. Traditionally, one of the top barriers and major obstacles to conducting comprehensive, iterative and massively parallel QA test cases is the lack of adequate computing resources. Not only is the shortfall due to budget constraint but also staff scheduling conflicts and the long lead time to procure new hardware/software. This can cause significant product release delays, particularly problematic with new application development under Scrum. An iterative incremental development/management framework commonly used with Agile software development, Scrum requires rapid successive releases in chunks, commonly referred to as splints. Advanced Agile users leverage this chunking technique as an affordable experimentation vehicle that can lead to innovation. However, the downside is the rapid accumulation of new testing needs.

By providing virtually unlimited computing resources on-demand and without up-front CapEx or long-term commitment, QA/load stress and scalability testing in the Cloud is a good starting point. Especially, the flexibility and on-demand elasticity of the Cloud Computing meet the iterative requirements of Agile on an on-going basis. More than likely it will turn out to be one of the least risky but quick ROI pilot Cloud projects for enterprise IT. Case in point, Franz Inc, opted for the Cloud solution when confronted with the dilemma of either abandoning their critical software product testing plan across dozens of machines and databases or procuring new hardware and software that would have been cost-prohibitive. Staging the stress testing study in Amazon’s S3, Franz completed its mission within a few days. Instead of the $100K capital expense for new hardware as well as additional soft costs (such as IT staff and other maintenance costs), the cost of the Amazon’s Cloud services was under $200 and without the penalty of delays in acquisition and configuration.

Approaching Large-scale QA and Load Stress Testing in the Cloud from a Strategic Perspective

While Franz Inc. leverages the granular utility payment model, the avoidance of upfront CapEx and long-term commitment for a one-off project, other entrepreneurs have decided to harness the power of on-demand QA testing in the Cloud as a new business model. Several companies, e.g. SOASTA, LoadStorm and Browsermob are now offering “Testing as a Service” also known as “Reliability as a Service” to enable businesses to test the real-world performance of their Web applications based on a utility-based, on-demand Cloud deployment model. Compared to traditional on-premises enterprise testing tool such as LoadRunner, the Cloud offerings promise to reduce complexity without any software download and up-front licensing cost. In addition, unlike conventional outsourcing models, enterprise IT can retain control of their testing scenarios. This is important because comprehensive QA testing typically requires an iterative process of test-analyze-fix-test cycle that spans weeks if not months.

Notably, all three organizations built their service offerings on Amazon EC2 infrastructure. LoadStorm launched in January 2009 and Browsermob (open source) currently in beta, each enable users to run iterative and parallel load tests directly from its Website. SOASTA, more established than the aforementioned two startups, recently showcases the viability of “Testing as a Service” business model by spawning 650 EC2 Servers to simulate load from two different availability zones to stress test a music-sharing website QTRAX. As reported by Amazon, after a 3-month iterative process of test-analyze-fix-test cycle, QTRAX can now serve 10M hits/hour and handle 500K concurrent users.

The bottom line is there are effectively two different perspectives: tactical (“involved”) versus the strategic (“committed”) and both can be successful. Moreover, the consideration of tactical versus strategic is not a discrete binary choice but a granularity spectrum that accommodates amalgamations of short term and long-term thinking. Every business must decide the best course to meet its goals.

P.S.  A shout out to Israel Gat for not only allowing me to post my piece today but for his always insightful comments in our daily email exchanges.

PART 1- THE IMPORTANT STUFF

Well I am not a very regular or reliable blogger, am I? I should have been back at it, a couple of weeks ago. It’s just that I really wanted to be able to tell you something of import. Many bloggers are able to do that daily or even more often. To them, I take my hat off. It’s quite a skill. After all, that is supposed to be the salient virtue of blogging- immediacy, frequency. And some people can accomplish both and remain meaningful. Others strive for the frequency but fail on the meaningfulness or newsworthiness. But more on that later.

Bloggers are a bit like naturopaths. It’s not that I don’t believe in alternative medicine. I do. I think it can be hugely beneficial as an alternative to the practices of the medical establishment. It’s just that I don’t know how anybody can ascertain who has the right credentials and who hasn’t. It’s the same a bit with bloggers. The best of breed are great and no doubt meet or exceed the highest journalistic standards. And then there’s the rest. And one often cannot ascertain the qualifications. Or the motives. But more on that later, too.

Back to myself, the unreliable blogger. Now that the final pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are falling into place- funding, strategic partnerships, launch plans etc. I will be a little less pressured and hopefully a little more reliable as a blogger. I’ll work at it, because I owe it to you and less importantly, I quite enjoy it.

It’s no fun when blogging is a one way street- with you as the subject but never the author. And there is no question that certain bloggers use their sites as a form of “bully pulpit”- to bludgeon others who cannot readily find a voice to fight back. It’s quite uplifting when you find that voice and are liberated from the “sitting duck” position. I have, perhaps reluctantly, found that voice and I am going to begin using it.

Now, my musings aside (OK- musings are too kind a word, I will accept ramblings if you insist) , what all of you are waiting for are some tangible facts. For the Qtrax shareholders and onlookers. Of course the central fact that everybody has wanted to know & has had an overdue right to know is : When are we going to get the show on the road? When is the launch date? And the corollary question: Is that really the date? Is that set in concrete? Is it reliable? Well, I had delayed providing the launch date having learnt from unexpected delays that have caused us all angst in the past. But yesterday we were ready. The answer of course to “when” was October 29th, 2009. That’s it. It won’t change. We announced it “formally” with good reason. Some will criticize it as too far in the future. What can I say? Getting it exactly right (not to mention monumental) is paramount. After 7 years, what’s an extra few weeks. So that is the “when”.

The “where”? We will be initially launching in 9 Asia Pacific countries- China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia & New Zealand. “Why”?

I could give you endless stats but here are a few:

• At 330 m Internet users to date, China has more users than the USA has people
• In China, internet usage is growing @ 41.9% per annum and over 90% is broadband
• Asia already has 42% of the world’s Internet users but in the next 12 months is likely to account for a majority
• Approximately 83% of China Internet users download music versus less than 40% in the US.

So there is the “when”, the “where” & the “why”. Stay tuned for the “who”: With which strategic partners will we launch? And which industry leaders? And celebrities?

And finally, the detailed part of the”where”. In which city will the global launch take place?

Notwithstanding my blogging unreliability, I promise you more details every week. We’re really excited and we would love you to join in our escalating excitement.

Now back to the blogging world. You might think, that if your blogging beat is technology, there is so much that you’d want to cram into your reporting day. Both in the US & the World. I don’t have such an inflated ego that I think that Qtrax is hugely newsworthy….yet. Especially before we have even announced a launch- i.e. prior to yesterday afternoon. And especially against the myriad of technology breaking stories.

So it struck me as unusual, perhaps suspicious, that anybody would want to report on our passing altercation with Oracle. But they did. And then they wanted to regurgitate it. In another article. And for good measure, include a copy of our check to Oracle in both articles. As big as possible. Now, any curious mind, my own included, would have to ask: why?

PART 2- THE IRRITATING STUFF

Well the first part of the “why” I know. There is a disgruntled gentleman who tried his hand at what we are doing & failed. And astonishingly, widely blames me. Well, he has been talking to the journalist behind these riveting stories and he, the “source”, has plenty to say. All of it negative. Much of it twisted. Some of it libelous. At least the journalist left out some of the more libelous stuff.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of newsworthiness. Nor for that matter, does it explain the personal rudeness to me of the journalist in question. Which I have had the pleasure of enjoying at about 4 am on a few different occasions. Now that’s only 1 pm his time, so don’t think of him as a stalker. That he is not, though his “source” arguably is. He has tracked me down to a hotel, called and hung up. And boasted about it! I think that might be a bit unhinged but I am sure that a professional could make a more reliable assessment.

But this journalist, seems to have some sort of crusade which allows him to go beyond many conventional bounds, including what is newsworthy.

Last Friday, he declared he was publishing a story on more “breaking news” (my sarcastic words, not his)- sadly it’s hard to see how it’s “breaking” or “news. We have a somewhat dated lawsuit going on with a Company called Millenium. They provided services for our servers before our aborted launch at Midem. We paid them some. And frankly struggled doing it, at the time. I can’t say more than that most of our suppliers have been wonderful. There are sometimes, exceptions. The legal system can decide if this is one. And then there’s Las Vegas Wall Street Group. A quite recent loan that it is claimed, is overdue. And there is a consent to a judgment signed by me. The facts will soon emerge about that also. Oh & just in case, it is deemed to also be newsworthy at some time in the future, there are a couple of outstanding lawsuits with toxic PIPES. As I’ve advised before, Google that term please.

First of all, I have not yet satisfactorily answered my question: Why would this journalist focus on these somewhat miserable facts and use his valuable column inches on us? Not only are there bigger stories- including by the way, the stats I include above re China- but also we are not yet launched. How do we qualify as newsworthy?

Furthermore, a start up, having trouble paying their bills, that would be unique, wouldn’t it? One of my advisors suggested it might approach a figure of 100%- particularly in these times. Ah, but the journalist might say, there is more of a story here. There is a “pattern” of not paying bills- really? Unlike, so many other start ups, we have NOT gone under, even in the most difficult of times and indeed been willing to give ALL of our personal resources to paying bills & making this work, for our shareholders- and of course, ourselves. I don’t want to portray us as heroic- we’re no doubt very far from it. But we certainly have and will use whatever personal resources we have to make Qtrax a success.

Ah, but the journalist might say, what about the returned checks? Well, we gave checks ahead of time- postdated- (when we didn’t have money) based on promises of funding. And we were wrong in our belief it was coming. But we have found alternative funding and item by item, have been paying for EVERYTHING. More than can, for example, be said of the companies associated with the source. His companies folded twice, as far as I can tell- I wonder how much the investors got in those scenarios? I don’t know but I could guess.

Ah, but the journalist might say, what about the lawsuits? Too high a number for things to be regular. I don’t know about the number. I know about the genesis and they each had their cause- sometimes an injustice we would not abide by, often just shortage of money. And given the fact it has taken us a sizable sum to get here, they represent a VERY SMALL % of total transactions.

Ah, but the journalist might say, Klepfisz is “unreliable”. When it comes to launch dates, in the past, he is right. And he would be right about many other software producers. Including the largest.

When it comes to having the requisite funds, when promised, he is also right. Sometimes, because of broken promises of others, we did not have the requisite funds. But we found them in due course.

But if the “unreliable” word is intended to smear my honesty or decency, then I won’t tolerate it. Sadly, that’s very precisely the intention of the source. And beyond that, he is intent on making it harder for us to progress. If he couldn’t get funded, then we shouldn’t either. The journalist is either wittingly or unwittingly assisting in this goal. Thankfully it won’t work.

So there are cascading attempts, to demonstrate that I am somehow “bad” and Qtrax is somehow lame & ill-fated. I come back to the question: why?

A friendship and/or dialogue with the “source” might explain it. But not fully. And for me it remains an unanswered question that spawns several others….

Could it be related to the fact that the journalist’s blog is owned by a company that also owns a major free music, ad-supported competitor to us? Possibly not but who knows?

Is it curious, that the journalist never mentions this fact?

Is it interesting that he has slammed ad-supported services recently but not the one owned by the blog’s parent? (I intend to address these broad brushstroke articles about ad-supported services in a rapid, follow up blog. I would agree that most don’t have a chance. But we have made ourselves, with years of work, hugely different. And not only because of having the only global free & legal download licenses. We have worked really hard on a series of pivotal differences. In costs & revenue. Rendering us almost diametrically opposed. I offered the journalist that story. He had no interest. NONE. Why?)

Could it be that he is just embittered? Or enjoys the power of potentially inflicting damage? I really don’t know. What I do know, is, that there can be very few readers who think that this latest blog on us constitutes fascinating reading. From my own (possibly biased) point of view it is a smutty attempt at nobbling us. I note that as of writing there were only 3 comments- 2 of them duplicates. I suppose that comments are at least one metric for reader interest.

But we won’t be nobbled. And we will launch. On October 29th, 2009. The disbelievers should continue without wavering. That will make our moment sweeter. 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. And for the 99% of well intended individuals, we will give you reason to celebrate. It’s time for the dogged to deliver.

–Allan Klepfisz

We at Qtrax encourage a healthy discussion on the state of our business and digital music in general. We realize that many people are left to make assumptions and fill in their own blanks when information is limited. That’s cool and expected. However, using this forum to flat out “make shit up” is not healthy for anyone. We’ve been open and honest about what’s going on, and realize that people expect more communication and want Qtrax up and running now. So do we, trust us. We’ve let the open forum thing run it’s course hoping that supporters and detractors alike could share in a constructive discourse. Obviously, things are now out of control and I’m shutting down the ability for anyone to post comments (good or bad) immediately. From now on, I’m going to moderate the discussion. And I’ll take my sweet time doing it too, so don’t expect me to be getting all jumpy whenever you send a new comment for my approval. I’ll get to it when I get to it. Sadly, this could have gone the other way and I really don’t look forward to moderating a comment board that has become somewhat like the cheerleaders versus the burnouts at my high school back in the day.

Qtraxer

There will probably be more from Allan shortly (hmmm…that seems vague). In the meantime (which is a good song by Spacehog–go ahead, indulge: Song/video), I’ll post this short note on the heels of another massive verdict in the ongoing litigation against illegal file sharing. Here’s the quick story taken from Ars Technica:

After just 3 hours of deliberation, the jury in the RIAA vs. Joel Tenebaum has ordered the student to pay $675,000 in damages or $22,500 for each of the 30 songs that he downloaded.

Tenebaum said that we would probably declare bankrupcy if the award were not overturned.

Combine this with the $1 million + verdict against the single mom from Minnesota and it’s pretty easy to see who has got both the law and the powerful lawyers on their side. Joel got some Harvard law professor to represent him. Please. Lord, what fools these mortals be.(B.S.)

Yet in this brave new world of internet bravado, a mere public flogging or two (although well within their rights) is not going to endear the record industry to it’s consumers nor is it going to derail the juggernaut that is illegal file sharing. So what’s the point? IMO it’s to prove a point. A point that has dogged the record industry for the past 10 years. One that’s been been challenged by a new distribution method and a generation of users who assume music is free. It’s not. Not quite yet anyway.

Here’s my advice to anyone who gets a file sharing ticket while speeding around the internet. Pay it. Going to court is a bad idea.

On another note, here’s a link to one of the funniest articles I’ve read in a long time. This came out last week, but it should be added to the dictionary as the example listed under “irony.” Enjoy: Limewire Pizza Party.

…another note from CEO Allan Klepfisz

Well here I am on another plane- different seat, different airline, different food, same ocean- Pacific that is- but racing back the other way- to the Orient. Didn’t get a chance to unpack my travel bag- literally- or to unwind at all, for that matter. Though it’s been a great number of months since I’ve done that. But it was good to be back in NYC & quite a bit got accomplished. It feels great to be at your office desk not to mention sleeping in your bed for a few hours here & there. But those delights are necessarily fleeting for the moment as there’s so much to be done- after all, we’ve got to get this thing damn well launched. ASAP. It’s excruciating to wait a moment more than necessary. But more on that later.

The highs & lows of our weeks somehow get more extreme. The highs were numerous in this past week: Meeting several industry execs who independently were exceptionally supportive and actually “got it” completely. I think understood clearly how we were going to be radically different to all existing propositions. Not only the first free & legal music download service with major & indie support and global licenses. But also a service getting out to the world and creating marketing relationships with the biggest & best of search, internet & media companies. And understanding how to maximize ad revenues.

And there were the large number of private messages and quite a few blog postings that gave me immense encouragement after my inaugural blog. For which I thank you all, greatly. It isn’t an easy journey, sometimes. Not that I have an inclination (or right for that matter) to complain. And although it has a ton of uplifting moments, it also has those very low moments- brought about by the “usual suspects”: personal poverty, extreme sleep deprivation, broken promises, delays in funding, encounters with dishonesty, ill-intent & greed, etc. But a good word from a good person has a way of making those occasional low moments, vanish instantly. Not that they hang around for long, anyway. But I am absolutely buoyed by those that wish us well in our soon-to-be-a-reality mission. And as for the others- well, of course, my knee-jerk reaction is to tell them to f*** off. But let me rather provide you with a more balanced view of them.

I don’t spend a lot of time reading the blogs on Qtrax. But occasionally I do. Or some understandably irate supporter brings something to my attention. It is at the very least interesting, to be a bystander to an intermittently raging debate, as to whether I am a con-man, crook, thief, liar & cheat or something a bit more noble. I don’t want to list the adjectives that might accompany the bit-more-noble alternative as no doubt they are exaggerated & I would blush. But I hope I don’t offend my supporters when I say that I can understand the sentiments of some of the sincere naysayers. Qtrax has been too damn long in the making. (I am not sure how we could have done it quicker & the impossible does take a bit longer but the criticism is nonetheless valid). And we have had to alter launch dates (& other critical dates) way too many times. (Almost always related to delayed/broken promises in funding [and the big boys delay all the time] but we’ve been wrong, nonetheless). And we have not kept our shareholders as well informed as they have a right to expect & demand- no question about it (We have worked round the clock to build something for them but that’s no substitute). So if you didn’t know me- either personally or via the written word [which I haven’t facilitated until now] you could well conclude that I am any and all of those pejorative terms. And if that is your sincere conclusion, I am the one to blame for not communicating with you better. It is not a completely unreasonable conclusion (although as it happens far from the truth. If however you have some motive in condemning us- like you’re bitter or jealous or a competitor or both, please excuse me for saying: screw you. Now, to be fair, with a couple of notable exceptions, I don’t know whether any particular blogger is one or the other- sincere or disingenuous. So I am not going to condemn anybody. Criticism is good. It’s welcome. And no doubt, it’s often justified. And if we listen, we hopefully will improve. And even if it comes from a twisted, jealous f***, it may contain something truthful from which we can learn. Having said all of that, if somebody is out to destroy us or to even merely impair our progress, we will not take such interference lightly. We welcome the critical. Even the misguided. As long as they don’t try to interfere in us accomplishing our goals on behalf of our many & varied stakeholders.

So back to the week of extremes. As I was saying, among the highs was important industry execs, being very helpfully supportive, . And also great progress in fundraising. A very prestigious brokerage/investment house declaring their intent to raise funds for us & executing a mandate. A public company signing an MOU (when it becomes binding we’ll announce it) to invest in Qtrax Greater China. Very high profile celebrity interest in our launch.

The overriding “low” was continued corporate (& personal) poverty. But God willing, this might be the week (or two), that fixes it for once & for all. In a non-denominational way my fingers are crossed. And I am extremely hopeful. With good reason.

Another “low” of the week is of course the highlighting in the press of our dispute (more like a tiff really) with Oracle. I could say a lot about our version of events. Arguments I happen to think are very compelling. (Including the fact that we paid for all of the existing licenses handsomely and in full under an old contract, moved to a new one for the next 3 years to cater for the global roll-out post-launch but have not utilized ANY additional software since & of course haven’t launched and that consequently for a start up, in this economic environment, we weren’t seeking too much indulgence.) And there’s even some juicier stuff. But because I believe the lawsuit will be withdrawn by week’s end let me rather focus on the fact that I think we have had & will once again forge a great partnership with Oracle.

By the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more bad press. Bring it on. I’ll have more to say about that in a blog in the next 24 hours. Nothing new- just the same stuff rehashed. Orchestrated by somebody with a real vendetta against us or more accurately, me. Blames me apparently for the fact that his business (trying to do something similar to us but of course much smarter) never got off the ground. It’s amazing how as you get closer to the finish line the jealous become more jealous and the badly intended, more so.

Now, I cannot sign off without a discussion of our launch date. So are we going to set a launch date? Well, I said in the last blog that we will do so when the money is deposited. And I thought it would happen by now. I was wrong. It is not yet deposited. But it is scintillatingly close. So stand by. We will be announcing that FINAL, IMMUTABLE launch date very soon.

The Impossible Takes a Bit Longer

I suppose most of those that will read this first blog of mine, don’t know me. Though that doesn’t prevent a few supporters and indeed detractors from writing with the sort of certainty and detail that implies an intimate knowledge of, not only me, but also my motivations, character etc. In this age of blogging you can enjoy the illusion of having many more friends (and enemies) than you’ve really earned. Hundreds, if not thousands, can now exchange tweets with you. But I recall (from the days when I knew an occasional moment of leisure) that there’s nothing quite like a couple of really good friends. But to be a good friend of mine, these days (and I suppose for the past 8 years), you have to suffer all the considerable indignities I throw in your direction. Including but not limited to having no time to ever go out with you (or even socialize with you in my very occasionally occupied home), making highly unreliable times to talk with you on the phone, etc etc. There are clearly very few that would put up with this sort of mistreatment & so my friends are few. But hugely appreciated because I am the undeserving recipient of their undying loyalty. And they understand my obsession to accomplish the heretofore impossible. On behalf of my shareholders, my hugely deprived but amazingly focused and dedicated and inspired and inspiring colleagues & professionals, my family, my creditors & just in case I sound too damn altruistic, myself. In no particular order.

The entrepreneur- which as I write it sounds like far too pompous a title to attribute to oneself- can sometimes be selfless. Something I (usually feebly) aspire to. But if he is dedicated & “inspired” he is inevitably as selfish as hell. Because nothing stops in the way of “the vision”. And whatever he sacrifices of his own, he also mindlessly sacrifices of others. Most particularly his family. And friends. But perhaps I will try to assuage my towering guilt on another blog.

But back to my original assertion- most likely, you don’t know me. Well if you knew me, you’d know that in the mix of my few virtues & multiple flaws, I have an attribute which is probably both- to the extreme. I have a quite obsessive need to pedantically report it, as it is. Every scintillating and bloody boring detail of the truth. Unabridged, unexpurgated, relentless, accurate detail. The good, the bad & the ugly. And then some. Perhaps as a consequence, silence is a challenge for me. But one that I’ve been forced to master over the past few years- at least in so far as denying myself a voice in the public arena. My main reason for doing so is pretty mundane- no damn time. And the feeling that in the 20 or so hours a day, 365 days a year that you must dedicate yourself to achieving the impossible (and staying alive to do it), you are not doing everything that’s needed. Indeed, for all that you get done there’s so much that you can’t. And the notion of squandering time, explaining rather than doing, is not an attractive one.

But it’s become a necessary one and one that our long-suffering, amazingly supportive shareholders can rightly think is way, way overdue. So from now on, I’ve decided to use those occasional down times, when your output is curtailed by circumstances- like flying over the Pacific as I’m currently doing- to share a few facts, thoughts & lots of ramblings with you. Of course in detail. And most importantly, calling a spade a spade. Or even better, a bloody shovel.

Some of the questions I hope to answer are: Why has Qtrax taken so damn long? Why have we suffered multiple and major delays not to mention false starts? Why do we nonetheless think- more so than ever- that we have a completely unique proposition that is going to give the consumer, the artist and the rightsholders, so much more than they’ve enjoyed to date, in the digital age. And be a badly needed paradigm shift for the music industry. And why do we think- more so than ever- that the other models out there just don’t work. And what’s so damn unique about our model. And aren’t we just another crappy ad-supported model? And why would anybody believe, after all the delays, that finally we are going to be launching throughout the world, progressively? And how does an impoverished little company, that’s fought & is fighting so many battles get on its feet- financially & operationally? And when is everything supposed to be happening, this time? See that’s the trouble with the Pacific Ocean- it’s very big and the flight’s long, so you might be getting more info than you’ve bargained for.

Qtrax has taken so damn long because the impossible really does take longer. We are the only company in the world that has global licenses for free & legal downloads. From majors & indies. And there is only one territory in which they exist in the hands of others- China in which Top100 hits has a limited catalog in partnership with Google. And we have these rights for the world.

Now- am I claiming that in achieving the impossible, we’ve been highly efficient? Absolutely not. We’ve tried hard but the truth is that if total efficiency is the goal, we’ve failed. I’ve failed. You want examples of failure, wretched reader? Well here they are. We have had several iterations of the software. We chucked out the earlier ones and built something that is unparalleled, we believe, in its functionality. And ease & speed of downloading of music tracks (Perhaps 5 seconds). And accessible encyclopedic information. But in building this extraordinary product, our brilliant CTO, Chris Roe, abandoned just about everything from prior efforts. As did our unerringly spot-on content czar, Matt Kramer. So we wasted a lot of time in getting to a great product. And in shifting our team from Australia to NYC. And in stopping & starting as money ebbed & flowed. Boy, have we had a lot of stops & starts.

We’ve also been inefficient in going through two sets of expensive licenses with the music industry. We threw out the first set. They were too restrictive and didn’t allow us to present the ultimate consumer proposition: free, high quality, downloadable music. A massive catalog. Unlimited plays. Etc, etc. But the first step was the unavoidable stepping stone to the second as the industry liberalized it’s thinking.

And of course we had an aborted launch. In Jan, 2008. But enough has been written about that. Our spectacular international humiliation. That had a massive silver lining. We could demonstrate how huge a desire there was for our service. And we increased our resolve to be able to offer an unparalleled service. And globally.

But despite the fact that these “detours” have robbed us and our supporters of time, we have remained undeterred in our mission.

It’s not the done thing, perhaps, to be so direct but in my view it’s the only way to be. It may provide fodder to those that are dedicated to undermining us- whether because we are encroaching on their territory and threatening their business models (including the illegal ones that enrich themselves at the expense of the artists etc) or because they are twisted & jealous (I won’t name them because to do so would be to reduce myself to their level of character assassination). But telling it, like it is, warts & all, is pretty damn important. The twisted bloggers are great at frankness within a very narrow band- the warts of others (none of the good stuff about others ) and never, but never, their own warts. In fact, they are perfect & hence supremely qualified critics. If only the truth was not the reverse.

So, while making those lofty observations about telling it like it is, let me be even more frank. We have most often suffered delays because of lack of money. Did I say that? Do corporations ever say that? Probably not. But let’s aspire a little higher on the frankness scale. Oh, we raised a lot of money- and spent it as judiciously as we could (which we think was pretty damn judiciously), notwithstanding my confessions above to certain inefficiencies. But this is a crazily ambitious project and we’ve always needed more. Indeed, it is delays in promised monies, that have in turn, delayed us once more. Broken promises with money tend to create a vicious chain. Somebody promises somebody else who promises us. And any broken promise, in the chain, leads to delay on our part. Not to mention to our own set of broken promises. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not attributing the blame to anybody else. The buck (or lack thereof) stops with me. Probably, by now, I should have learnt to not make ANY predictions. Even with all the requisite disclaimers. But people, rightly want some guidelines & timelines. And so we try, not often enough, to provide them. But in a way, it’s too often. Because, particularly, in these unpredictable times, it’s very easy to be wrong. Because even if you add plenty of extra time to account for the unexpected, you can never accommodate a massive delay or a completely broken promise. But none of this is an excuse for being late. Nor is it an attempt to avoid giving what will, we strongly believe, be the final, unalterable, unmovable launch time. And we’ll do that in the next week. And you’ll be able to mark it in your calendar. And we’ll do a corporate update at the same time to give you a few more things to mark in your calendar. The reason we’re waiting until next week is we want to make sure we have the money in the bank. With money comes certainty. Our detractors may rejoice at the delay. We’ll all be rejoicing very soon. With much more joy. I just hope that the disbelievers don’t own any shares. If they ever did.

Our confidence comes from the fact that we have finally found the bucks (that we thought we had before). In almost sufficient & certainly substantial quantity, to do everything we want & need to do. Now, you might justifiably ask- could something go wrong? Could there be a further delay? My answer, and the only responsible answer, is anything is possible. And you can never be certain about funding until it’s in the bank. But this should be it. We have never had more money promised, with more certainty. From sources we trust. Whose word is their bond. And worth more than a 100 page contract. But if there is going to be the slightest variation, we will inform you ahead of time. We are confident. These people have previously delivered. And delivered. A very large amount in aggregate. Microsoft has often had major & repeated delays in releases. And they couldn’t use the money excuse. In our case, I think you know intuitively, that it’s the cold, hard truth. On to the next confronting question…..

So why is Qtrax unique & uniquely powerful? Because of its licensing contracts, certainly. But also, because of its business model. Refined over the 7 years we spent in the wilderness. Working on the licenses and thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more. Let me make a few reflections in this regard although I must ask you to forgive me if we don’t reveal every aspect of our “secret sauce(s)”.

First, if you want to have a viable ad-supported model, it helps to have people that know something about ads. Too many people that come up with a technology, even a winning one, place inadequate emphasis on the importance of getting the ad part right. Which after all, is the revenue, stupid! Or much of it. Now, my partners, Lance & Robin know a damn lot about advertising. They have lived it & breathed it for their entire professional lives. As many of you know (and are thankful for), Lance was (among many achievements) the founding publisher of Maxim magazine. And during the 8 or so years under his leadership, against all odds, the magazine became the number one men’s magazine in the US & sold hundreds of millions of dollars of ads to advertisers for our demographic- 15-35 year olds. And Robin- was of course the global Chairman & CEO of Universal McCann. In fact, made it agency of the year. These two guys happen to be damn smart at what they do. And not too dumb, otherwise.

Secondly, you need to make the site attractive to advertisers. Obvious, you might say. Well, not obvious enough to be a priority to so many sites including most that offer music. They are sinfully unattractive. Especially to advertisers. And user-generated content doesn’t help either. It often makes advertisers nervous. And most of the big sites to date, are based on user generated content. Which gives us a massive opportunity. Because advertisers need to come online to find our demographic. But they want to do it in a predictable environment.

Third, you need to be realistic about your revenues. Most of your income is going to come from network ads. Those low paying ads that populate most sites. You’re not going to earn a high CPM for them. In fact, you are going to early a decidedly lousy CPM. And only a small percentage of your inventory is going to be premium advertising which will necessitate negotiating with an advertiser and getting a more decent rate. But your business has to survive on low CPM’s and if it can’t, you’re up the proverbial creek without a paddle. We have tweaked & tweaked our business model, to make sure it can. And Robin has then modeled our business model- 23 times to date. Not because he loves the task but because we take this shit very seriously. Because guess what- we’ve worked this hard to create a successful business. Not a money, losing proposition. When (ok, if & when) we have tens of millions of users, we want also to be profitable. Call us weird.

Fourth, you need to be mindful of your costs. Something that streaming services are discovering. And they account for all of our free music legal competitors. And you need to find a way to make your licensing costs bearable. Something we’ve worked very hard at.

Fifth, you need to have a sure way of getting massive audience. And we are creating that sure way. By engaging the dominant sites, search engines & media players in each territory. In short, by getting off our asses, leaving the comfort of the US and talking to eager marketing partners. My partner Lance has sacrificed his home life (not to mention his golf) to take to the road with me. Interminably. As has my long suffering partner, Chai. And Robin. And Alex. Perhaps not the common way for people in our industry. But a damn effective way.

Sixth, what about the local music? If you leave the safety of your home country and pound the overseas pavements, you might notice that taxi drivers in Hong Kong listen to Chinese music, in Turkey to Turkish music, in Dubai to Arabic music etc. So it takes effort & we are just beginning but we are intent on hunting down the sources of local music in every country we’re going to be operating in. And having something other than your standard, US, ethnocentric, music service.

I could probably go onto to 20 more unique aspects of what we’re doing. But as Dylan says, “Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore” and they’re serving breakfast on this flight which means the Pacific is soon ending and land is in sight. Apart from which, there has to be something left for another monster blog or 2.

But I haven’t answered all the confronting questions, I posed and I know there’s at least one miserable soul out there who is waiting to fault me on being evasive about something.

Just a word, then, on our battles. We have had every type. Battling against an old model for the music industry. Which served it so well for so long. But which the ability of consumers to bypass the CD, rendered obsolete. If you can get music free, albeit illegally, you will. And that’s why, perhaps 95% of consumption, perhaps much more, is illegal. And if you can buy, legally, just the track or 2 you want from an album, you will. Which is why both illegal activity & legal activity are making the industry cry out for a new model. But our departure from any conventional model was radical. Too radical. And we had to battle hard for it. And we did. And did.

And we battled the complexity of licensing. Our licensing guru, Rick Riccobono went on a mission to London to sort our the insanely complex terrain of European publishing licensing. He’s got it sorted after being there for 2 grueling years.

And we’ve battled to raise money. And to raise it while being honest (if sometimes wrong). Every day for about 7 years. Every day. With the help of a team that I thank hugely. They know who they are. And the money raised has mostly been from genuine investors who have mostly remained very enthusiastic for the entire period. Which has been really more than we could expect or deserve. Much more. But also from toxic PIPES/death spiral funds (Google that!) and inadvertently from some undesirables and we’ve ended up in legal battles with several of them. And a couple of suppliers who may or may not have done the right thing by us. And sometimes, frankly, we haven’t done the right thing by others, either. Like not being able to meet checks on their due dates. And as inexcusable as that has been, one by one we have worked thru situations to ensure that everybody gets paid. Even if it means dipping into our own pockets. No hiding behind the corporate veil for us. Whether it takes personal guarantees (& exposure) or personal funds, we’ve done what is required to keep the company afloat.

And we’ve battled to remain in control of our destiny. This has been a critical and constant battle. Because everybody knows how to do it better. But thankfully our largest funders have been the wisest. They’ve known that to tame us is to destroy us. I believe we have the most talented team ever assembled to get this job done. From our office manager Teo (who has to put up with both you & us), to the IT, content, licensing, advertising & funding execs. They’re nothing short of brilliant. And dedicated, And loyal. We’re also damn unconventional and we’re going to stay that way. You think we need to become more mainstream, more corporate? Screw you.

And we’ve battled to simply exist. To keep the lights on. Not to go the way of so many others. And to survive personally. I am both proud and ashamed that management is the largest creditor of this company. You’d understand why.

And we’ve battled not to dilute the hell out of shareholders while raising funds. And somehow we’ve succeeded in this regard more than could perhaps be expected.

We are nothing if not dogged. And stubborn. And determined. And God willing, our reward & that of our large number of stakeholders, is that we are very soon going to launch a powerfully attractive music service, with leading internet & media companies as marketing partners. That have existing substantial users. And we’ll progressively roll it out throughout the world.

This is the least that you, our long suffering, supporters deserve. And while it’s perhaps more than I deserve because of how long it took me to get here, as long as there’s breath in my body, I will not rest until it’s achieved. Of that you can be certain.

–Allan Klepfisz

I’ve been paying attention to the Michael Jackson media frenzy quite a bit. Not because I was the biggest MJ fan on the planet, but because ultimately we create our own epitaph. Especially when a person is a polarizing as the King of Pop, it’s crazy to try to understand his legacy outside of individual opinion. When someone is obviously as talented as Michael Jackson is, yet so openly flawed, the ink may never dry on his obituary.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on the music and his legacy as the King of Pop. This isn’t because we’re eager to turn a blind eye to the last 10 and the controversy which encompassed his life. On the contrary. It’s not even much of a discussion if he wasn’t who he became as an artist and a performer.

For all intents and purposes, pop music has seen three or four larger than life figures that have transcended not just pop culture, but life and culture itself. Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Madonna (debatable) sit on a short list of icons so big, that they change the rules for everyone. Whereas mega pop stars exist in a world that is music centric (like the cover of Rolling Stone) , icons like the above list lived in the fabric of everyday life (like the cover of Time magazine). However, even when you compare him to the very short list of peers, Michael Jackson’s musical accomplishments stand apart. 750 million albums sold globally. Thriller sold over 100 million copies which is more than double the next closest album. Plus, MJ has two other albums which sold over 30 million copies each (Dangerous and Bad). Only the Beatles have more than one album on the 30 million plus list, and one of those was a greatest hits (1) album. Additional accomplishments as far as number one hits, weeks on the charts, and top ten hits are right up there near the top of every category.

A lot has been written already about Michael. There will be plenty more to come. Everyone will have an opinion. There’s no denying the fact, however, that pop music will always be richer for having the talents of Michael Jackson to remember. Tragically, that’s only part of the story.

The (un)-culture of bashing In my previous post, I gave some of my reasons to open a blog dedicated to the future of free, legal music, and in particular, to Qtrax. However, I argued, reasons are one thin, decisions and action, another. What I found missing from the previous post is a more sincere personal answer to the question why the hell do I even care about it. I will, now, give three recent events that brought me to sit down and open this blog. My first trigger is an interaction I had recently, in the blogsphere. Recently, I found myself contributing (or so I thought) to a discussion in a blog dedicated to the music industry. In the entry I reacted to, the blogger used very strong words to criticize some obstacles Qtrax confronted recently. There was no doubt the blogger was highly enthusiastic about stating his claims, an enthusiasm of a degree some of you might have felt on various occasions in your life when you realized facts such as that your next-door neighbor is about to destroy London, and nobody seemed to believe you, or worse, to care about the future of London. I wasn’t too puzzled first, as this level of enthusiasm is  common, and could  easily be  explained as a manifestation of jealousy over a woman. It didn’t take me much investigation to discover that the ‘evidence’ the blogger was referring to could be equally described as nothing more than the struggle any honest business confronts in times of crisis. On further reading I learned that there is at least one additional blog dedicated to the same subject of Qtrax bashing, both seemed extremely obsessed, and had some cross-references, so crossing out the possibility of a parallel universe, I concluded they must actually know each other. At this point I thought – I must find that woman! To be more serious, had no doubt  this level of enthusiasm indicates that not only Qtrax team believes in the future of their project, but there are some people out there who don’t like Qtrax, but have no doubt that the project is going to work, and they seem to be willing to waste their time, energy and possibly, their or someone else’s money, to try to stand in Qtrax way. Such reactions remind me of the acts of extremists in the Middle East, who always accelerate their activities whenever serious peace negotiations are on the way. In one of his entries, for example, the blogger, using the excuse of unveiling Qtrax’s CEO’s ‘unreasonable’  expenses gave a detailed information of the whereabouts of the CEO, in a manner I found extremely threatening. I wasn’t impressed neither by the nature of the accusation not by their supportive Sherlock Holmes type of investigation. Just to give an example, that apparently, the OP takes to have some mystic symbolic value, it turns out that the CEO had spent his night, or at least had his lunch at the lobby of some fancy hotel and used his computer to connect to the internet there- fascinating! Being rather sensitive about any form of personal McCarthyism, I found myself dedicating a few more days to learn the subject. My impression was that, while there is a general consensus that Qtrax struggles hard to survive, and at times, fails to meet its launch deadlines and struggled often to reach various deadlines there is a general consensus about the honesty of the Qtrax team. In fact, it seems that it is nothing but their  honesty and dedication by virtue of which they survived many obstacles which others did not.  Apparently, it is hard to imagine anybody other than the actual Qtrax team that would still get the support Qtrax gets, unless it was viewed by many as a highly trusty and honest team. I might come back to a more detailed discussion of some of the accusations in the near future. But more interestingly, I will argue in one of the following posts that the difficulties  confronted by Qtrax are, in fact, indications that the project is genuinely revolutionary. A last word about the bashing blogs, while not a psychologist, I got the impression that the two bloggers are extremely obsessed with Qtrax. On a dedicated blog at the Investor’s Hub, I found some possible explanations for their obsession. My heart was broken when I learned that it wasn’t about a woman. (ps, girls, I am better now, if you wish to contact me). According to some, the same bloggers  posted similar   accusations and made references to the above mentioned blogs on various posts at the Hub, but when an actual name, rather than a nickname was associated with the accusers, along with a rather convincing explanation for their personal mitivations, the  bashers were quieted  for quit few long days. Apparently, there was something they were not too proud of. Obviously, I am not in the position to quote the explanation for their obsession, as I don’t have any way to verify its accuracy. In any case, something should better explain   how  intelligent mature people (they can type, for example) become obsessed with something, and not as a revenge over a woman (maybe the CEO’s grandfather stole, in his youth, some of their family’s goats? We will never know). These  bashing and their possible personal motivations were sufficient to give  the kick needed to my sss, so I would sit down and start putting these thoughts into words. My strong feelings about these bashing are not simply a result of the fact that I don’t agree with the posters’ accusations.   A disagreement could be a civilized thing. However, I have zero tolerance to  expressions of sheer joy over someone’s misfortune.  As someone who spent much of his life in a part of the world full of conflicts, I learned to recognize that war and hatred are not caused  by the depth of the commitment of people to  conflicting worldviews, but by the tendency of some to loose their empathy towards their rivals.

Let me, however, finish by mentioning two additional recent events that made me realize how urgent is the need for free, legal music:

• Why free legal music? Because for these monsters, you were reduced from  a human being, or at least, a proud citizen in a democratic society, into a mere consumer, and when you misbehave, or rather ‘mis-consume’, they will have no mercy on you, and they will destroy your life with a big smile on their face: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading.
• While there is a grain of truth in the fact that present times give opportunity to everybody, as you can broadcast yourself from your own living-room, the truth is that like many other trends in globalization, unless the end users and small, alternative experimental musicians, musicians who challenge well established trends, will fight for their rights, nobody else will. As Kim Gordon put it recently, in an interview for the Guardian, reacting to the big boys from Radiohead’s ‘generous’ free release of their album: “there’s a whole machinery you have to build up… I don’t really think they (D.H: Radiohead) did it by themselves…They did a marketing ploy by themselves and then got someone else to put it out. It seemed really community-oriented, but it wasn’t catered towards their musician brothers and sisters, who don’t sell as many records as them.” In other words, if your big, you can also pretend that you are attentive and generous to your fans, and very soon, that could make anybody charging money for their music looking like the enemies of the people. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/05/sonic-youth-rock-music.

These are, then, the background events that triggered me to open this blog. Now its time to get to some more interesting questions, such as ‘why legal free music is right?’, ‘Why is it right to think of a free, legal music in revolutionary terms’, and more. I might also get, in some more details into an analysis of the type of objections raised against Qtrax. Putting personal revenge feelings aside, it does look as if both proponents and opponents feel Qtrax is going to make a major step in the industry, and this step might change again the way our music environment. So if there are genuine points of objection, we should not overlook them. However, I will argue the type of criticisms that raised by the bashing bloggers  is deeply misguided, and it  based on a deep misunderstanding of   concepts such as ‘action’, ‘leadership’, and further, that it is based on  overlooking of an important theoretical distinction between a synchronic perspective of events and a diachronic   perspective. But two posts over one weekend is a good indication that I should go back to my real work, and leave music aside for the time being. Have a great week! Dr. Hatter.

Not everyone...just the blogger.

Qtrax Nation…

I’m going fishing and golfing this weekend. And by weekend, I mean, in a couple of hours. I’m already getting plenty of grief from the home front for extending our annual fishing and golf extravaganza (Mancation) by a couple of days this year, so no need to pile on. The bosses are all working hard on your behalf, traveling the globe in search of making Qtrax the greatest thing since sliced bread, udon noodles, Vegemite, wurstel or whatever is the ideal food in the country they are in. I’m sure this will get all of your creative juices flowing and provide topic fodder for your amusement. Have at it.

Anyway, when you’re done with all of that and you still don’t know what to do, go download the mother load of Sonic Youth on Qtrax and listen to it all weekend while I’m slaying fish and sinking birdies. It’s the least you can do. I’ll come back refreshed and full of interesting metaphors regarding man sports and digital music. Oh, and don’t tell the bosses.

Once again, from my trusty intern Ryan, comes a blog I had him write in the wake of iTunes variable pricing. My notes are italicized:

With the music industry essentially breaking down, people are now looking for alternatives to the outdated business model that has supported the music industry for the last century. Two of those alternatives are variable pricing and ad-based services.

Variable pricing is pretty self explanatory, and it has the benefit of letting the marketplace choose who is the most valuable and least valuable. Economist Umair Haque talked about how this helps get rid of the “moral hazard” that has been present in the music industry, and he has a great point: Katy Perry and Bob Dylan records cost the same. That’s like having a used 1983 hatchback without seat belts cost the same as a Rolls Royce Phantom.

Unfortunately, the actually implementation hasn’t been as great. iTunes is one of the first services to pick it up, and instead of trying to create a system that accurately represents value, it just raises prices to satisfy the greed of the major labels. The other concern, in the words of Bob Lefsetz, is that this step is “one that should have been taken years ago and is so small as to be almost insignificant.” It just won’t make that big of a difference in profit and sales.

One service that may be more promising is Amie Street Music. Their downloads start at nothing or almost nothing, and the price increases the more people buy it. It does a much better job of creating a system that clearly shows which product holds more value, and perhaps could be an indication of more, similar services to come.

I am a huge advocate of Amie Street. I have never bought anything from there, but whenever I am feeling a complete drain of new music, I browse Amie Street for free music in the styles/genres/sub-genres that I’m feeling at the moment. Granted there’s PLENTY of crap on there, there are diamonds in the rough. Some which I actively listen to.

Ad-based services, on the other hand, seem to be doing alright. Services like imeem (they were just saved) are booming, as well as Spotify (only in the UK unless you’ve been able to use the “on vacation” loophole…email me for details). However, it hasn’t had a great track record. Just a few months ago the service called SpiralFrog, a ad-based P2P system, had to close up shop. The one I’m going to focus on, however, is called QTrax.

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even use QTrax. Why? Because it doesn’t work for anything but Windows! QTrax uses a windows-only platform, and uses the DRM protection that Microsoft developed, that’s two strikes right there. The future of media is dependent on how open you are going to be with your product (cooooooompletely agree!!!), and restricting it to a single computer on one operating system is just foolish. QTrax also bans transferring the music to any portable music player, which is another missed opportunity. The more likely scenario is QTrax had to be this closed to get the majors to sign on, which seems to be the case with every music start up: make huge compromises to benefit the execs in lieu of creating an excellent product.

In the end, the marketplace will eventually sort out which one works best, but for now it’s a free for all. I guess all we can do is wait, and hope that the major labels self-destruct sooner rather than later. Once the majors are gone, the real change will begin.

I don’t 100% agree with that statement. To a certain extent, as long as bands feel they need a label, the labels will exist, but that’s a WHOLE OTHER argument. However, try some of these sites that Ryan pointed out and let me know what you think?

iMeem just scored a new round of funding from it’s investors which will keep the streaming music service/social music experiment going—for the time being. According to an article on CNET, iMeem’s financial problems have been going on for a while and some of their partners are getting antsy to see whether or not this can prove to be a viable business model. Other streaming sites are coming under similar fire. MySpace Music has also been criticized by music labels and industry insiders for not delivering on their promises to be a catalyst for increased music sales. Traffic is good, but this has not led to increased music sales. A separate article on CNET (by the same author) points out just how difficult it is to find the path to increased purchases via the social web. Not surprisingly, he states: “At the very least, MySpace Music’s sluggish performance illustrates how difficult that task is. Music consumption on the Web has really come down to two horses: iTunes and illegal peer-to-peer sites.”

Two horses indeed, for now. However, you don’t need to be a fan of horse racing to know that every once in a while, a long shot comes blazing up the rail and takes the world by storm. We hope that’s us. And with the odds of stealing music vs. purchasing it on the web at 100-1, you’ve got to believe in the dark horse.

What’s making these streaming sites have so much difficulty? It’s a bit of a complicated answer, because there are varying degrees of success and failure. Is success securing additional funding so you have a longer chance to prove out your model? Is success getting tons of traffic, but being upside down on your advertising model? Is failure shutting your doors so that you don’t continue to lose money? I guess it all depends on how you look at things. For iMeem, there is big traffic, lots of content, good technology and few ads. Ad dollars should follow, if they have enough time. However, there are also big label upfront dollars that are sunk, owed royalties and a too-high ongoing royalty rates for what has amounted to background music. Even Pandora has struggled with gaining some revenue. Their unique advertising model has secured great premium advertisers on a consistent basis. They also have added tons of mobile users with their iTunes (and now Blackberry) apps which has opened up additional mobile advertising revenue. However, the management team at Pandora have complained loudly about the high royalty rates for their (and similar streaming) services which are crippling their efforts to turn a profit. More users equals a greater amount of royalty payments that is not matched by the additional advertising revenue. This has become Pandora’s paradox, and is affecting many of the streaming services. In a rather harshly titled article: Warner Music Says iMeem It Worthless and Owes It $4 Million Which It Can’t Collect, the paradox is explained as follows: “According to comScore, imeem’s U.S. traffic has come down about 25 percent off its peak last July. As of March, 2009 it was at 5.3 million unique visitors in the U.S. and 24 million worldwide. In the perverse world of music streaming licensing, the bigger your audience, the more money you lose.”

I don’t want any of these guys to fail. In fact, I find Pandora to be one of the better music sites on the internet. I enjoy all forms of music discovery and get really jacked up when a song I’ve found on Pandora is available for download on Qtrax. This is how it should work. This is how it will work. Two horse race? Think again, I hear more galloping off in the distance.

When I first started writing this blog, I was thinking that it would be a cool music outlet with an unlimited supply of content from the Qtrax library. Both are not totally realized. Not only am I less prolific than I had hoped, but alas, Qtrax is still a work in progress. It seems as if the majority of readers are looking for information on Qtrax “the company” and are less interested in the actual music on the site. That’s cool, I’ll take any readers I can get. They go hand in hand, I’ve come to realize. Until Qtrax is fully up and running beyond it’s US preview, we’re forever going to be stuck answering questions from all over the globe as to when, why, where and how. The tricky balancing act in the whole equation is trying to be a good communicator without giving away any insider information which would make partners upset or SEC watchdogs cry foul. Most importantly, we are concerned about consumers. We hear all of you loud and clear. You want it all, and you want it now.

In today’s digital get-it-now world it’s acceptable to demand the things you want. In fact, we like it that way. In the long run it will serve to our advantage. I’ve only got 2,500 or so songs downloaded from Qtrax at the moment, but for some reason, that’s not nearly enough. I want the new Green Day, um, yesterday dammit! I’m like you guys. I’m trying to be patient. It’s hard since we all feel that we should have it all by now. As I’ve been reminded several times, it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver. It’s to the point now that’s there seems to be a line drawn in the sand among those watching Qtrax. There are believers who will support us until it happens regardless of delays. There are non-believers who will take every opportunity to rip us regardless of progress. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like it’s about music too much anymore. I’m going to try and change that. I’m going to keep writing about the cool stuff you can get on Qtrax. I’m sorry if that’s going to upset people who are stuck without it at the moment or expect some sort of insider commentary regarding our deadlines and software upgrades. No disrespect, but that’s what’s fun to write about. I’ll still defend our product where appropriate, but I’m not going to rip on people for the sake of providing copy. I’ll leave that to the non-believers. I’ll also do my best to let everyone in on what’s happening on the tech side, but sometimes I can’t discuss it or don’t have anything new to report.

Back to the music. LCD Soundsystem’s 2007 album, Sound of Silver is one of those albums which hits you like a change of seasons. You sort of notice it at first, but soon enough, you’ve put away the umbrella and next thing you know, you need some aloe for your sunburn. As a late 80s college music junkie, I am enamored by James Murphy’s introspective sophomore album, but I nearly overlooked it all together. It sort of had that, “I’ve heard this before” sound which borrowed from Pavement, The Shins and some Smiths. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s a totally unique teleportation. There are many similarities to the late 80s and today. The economy, the job market and a war in the Middle East. LCD Soundsystem breaks bread with a bygone era, but provides a very forward soundtrack to the here and now. It’s a must have for any music library and less than a minute away on Qtrax.

King B and Moe Train from Moe Train's Tracks

Moe Train’s Tracks is a music/entertainment/interview show that brings you exclusive interviews with the world’s most well known musicians.  Check out the audio from the interviews as well as photos, album reviews, blogs and other great content on MoeTrainsTracks.com!

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Thanks again to the 100,000+ listeners worldwide, and we’ll see you… ON THE TRACKS!

- Monty “Moe Train” Wiradilaga and Brian “King B” Kracyla

A while back, we got a rather ridiculous review of our installation process from Idolator. Idolator is a site owed by Buzz Media which has a bevvy of music-related web sites (Buzznet, Celebuzz, Absolute Punk, GoFugYourself, JustJared, Stereogum, TheSuperficial, WWTDD). To be honest, ever since we got the scathing review from the folks at Idolator, I’ve been checking in and seeing what’s going on. In fact, I rather liked their celebrity gossip meets American Idol gossip meets music gossip take on pop music an pop culture. Except when they are ripping on us, of course.

So, you can imagine my mixed feelings about the news that the Idolator had slashed it’s staff to, well, one. No one knows better than me that keeping up a well respected, global, highly informative and witty site with an army of one is sometimes a difficult proposition. At times I can be found curled up in the fetal position in my basement surrounded by empty beer cans and Kit Kat® wrappers hoping for divine intervention. Usually it comes when my wife kicks me a couple of times in the stomach or the reminder to get the kids off the bus goes off on my phone. Sometimes, it’s the bigwigs at Qtrax calling and wondering why their blogger takes off a few days between posts. Either way, any writer knows that collaboration serves as a hefty chunk of one’s inspiration. Sitting at home staring at a computer rarely serves as anything more than a reminder that you should get out of the house more often. So, to you , Maura Johnston, who is currently holding down the fort at Idolator, I tip my hat to your solo status and hope you keep on keeping on, dawg. This era in business will be remembered as the great contraction.

I will note, however, that there is some irony in the fact that the very same newspapers, bloggers and writers that cover a music industry in decline, also find themselves getting burned by the axe grinder’s sparks. Keep in mind people, there are no high horses to sit on anymore. There is no bully pulpit sanctuary of the economically immune. We all have something to lose. That’s not our motto over here at Qtrax, but we’re certainly cautious as we move forward. That is why we’re not always able to meet our own deadlines and get up and running on a global basis. There is a lot to gain, but there is also a lot to lose. We are very much committed to our revised May launch schedule for the v.1.1, but if it get’s pushed back even further, please be aware that there are sound business reasons behind it. I’m not saying that it’s going to happen, but we didn’t expect a delay in the April launch either.

Here’s an interesting idea for all of you music fans. Get off your ass and go see a band—live. First of all, you’re helping them financially. Secondly, you’re providing emotional support in the dysfunctional, brave new world of music. Last, you’ll likely have an awesome time, if you like music. You do like music, don’t you?

I checked out one of my favorite bands, Franz Ferdinand the other day. A couple of years ago, they pretty much sold out the “Enormo Dome” when they came through town. This time, they played at First Avenue, the legendary club once owned by Prince. It was a packed house, and the Scotsmen didn’t disappoint. Despite the busted foot of guitarist Nick McCarthy, which kept him in a chair for the whole show, they brought their A game. You can always tell which bands have got mad talent by their live shows. Especially when they play the intimate setting of a smaller club. Franz Ferdinand exemplifies this. Their back-line was simply amazing, keeping the back beat going all night while the guitars, keys and vocals provided the flavor.

Franz Ferdinand has made it big. They’ve sold a bunch of records, played sold out shows, won awards and have lived up to their critical tag of being the “next big thing.” Yet being the next big thing these days means something entirely different. Consider this, Jimmy Page may have been the smartest musician who ever lived. As a studio guitarist who worked with some of the most influential rock acts in England prior to starting Led Zeppelin, he understood the industry. He understood the value of publishing rights. He financed all of Led Zeppelin’s albums and maintained the publishing rights for the band, allowing them to keep nearly all of their royalties. Last year, the band cleared over $500 million dollar in royalties—for just one of their songs. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Stairway to Heaven is still the highest played song on the radio every year.

Since Led Zeppelin is not going to rev up a reunion tour, ever (let it rest, people), I suggest you go out and see bands that need your support. Especially when you can get their music for free from Qtrax (like Franz Ferdinand).

Gammel Skole Norsk Sjørøverene (Old School Norwegian Pirates)

It’s finally paid off. For those of you who thought going to school in Norway and subsequently getting a second major in Norwegian and Norwegian Literature was perhaps a waste of a good education—ha ha ha, I laugh in your face. Not only did I get to spend over a year among the world’s most beautiful women, playing hockey all over Scandinavia and Russia, but I also learned a second language that only a handful of people outside of Norway speak. Fast forward a few (ahem!) years, and suddenly a study on music purchasing habits by those who download music illegally surfaces, untranslated, from all places, Norway. This, coupled with the news of the sentencing of The Pirate Bay founders out of Sweden (I can also read Swedish—they are quite similar), and the previously noted Swedish P2P study and I suddenly hit the education jackpot. We’ve got multiple studies coming out in languages that I understand, on topics I’m involved with and the timing seems rather good too. Beat that Econ majors!

Technically, you can get a roughly translated copy of the story, titled: Pirates Are The Best Customers through Google and Ars Technica. I’ve read this study, and I’ve also read numerous stories in the Norwegian press summarizing the results. The point that the study makes, and you can read it for yourself—don’t just take my word for it—is that people who illegally download music buy ten times more music than your average law-abiding music consumer. Although it never clearly states it as a conclusion, we are led to believe that illegal downloading is not what is causing the demise of the record industry. The study is a poll of over 1000 Norwegians ages 15-20. Add that to the Swedish study from a couple of days before (see previous post), and you’d actually think that music sales have seen steady increases over the past few years. So, if the billions of tracks that are downloaded on almost a daily basis via various illegal sites are done so by big-buck spending music fans, why aren’t these super-stealers-slash-super-consumers also fueling a music industry boom? Is there something that the record industry executives are not telling us? Are they really flying commercially (instead of the Gulfstream) as a ruse to keep us in the dark about their record profits? Holy crap, are we uncovering the next Madoff scam? Is this Enronesque? Where’s my Pulitzer?

Nope. The answer is really quite simple. Illegal downloading really does hurt overall music sales quite significantly–especially when overall consumption is down. Digital music is about buying one song at a time. Obviously, this is where the biggest dent in overall music sales has occurred. Overall music sales are at roughly 25% of what they were 10 years ago. Even if it’s totally accurate that music pirates are buying ten times more music than non-pirates, the overall purchase number is so much lower due to such drastically reduced consumption, that the stolen music, is actually having a bigger impact. Consider it this way. You’re a baker and make some really kick ass donuts. You sell them only by the dozen. If you have a million donuts and everyone is paying for them, you’re bakery will be a success. However, you now let people buy one donut at a time if they want. You now are making only 250,000 donuts, but your warehouse of donuts keeps being broken into by some really big donut fans who also buy ten times more donuts than people who don’t steal donuts. Guess what Mr. Baker, you’re hosed. Now, think about it, who are you going to blame? The customers who are buying less donuts or the customers who are buying lots of donuts, but then stealing even more of your yummy treats? Both are at fault, but I would argue that since the theft is up while consumption is down dramatically, it’s the thieves that have the greater impact. Get your Freakanomics book out for that one Econ majors! All in all, if both continue, that bakery’s going to have a “for lease” sign plastered in the window mighty quick.

Are the Norwegians lying? Nope. I think it’s probably true that people who steal music are likely to buy music. Especially 15-20 year olds. These kids probably get iTunes gift cards at every holiday, birthday or graduation. They are in the formative years of their music acquisition. They probably do spend money from their summer jobs on music. The truth is, however, they steal even more. Consider these kids music addicts acting like a drug addict. When you got money to pay for it, you pony up. Even if you have money to pay for it, sometimes you don’t have to. When you don’t have money for it, you still gotta get your fix and, “what’s that? Is that a bile pile of my drug of choice over there? Don’t mind if I do…”

This was actually a much more interesting study than the Swedish one. Certainly it was much more believable, but sadly, less conclusive. The idea that illegal music downloading is not at the heart of the demise of the music industry is preposterous. The stats, once again do not lie. Music sales are down dramatically. Illegal file sharing is up dramatically. Let’s not patronize piracy and the thieves by saying that they are also good for business. That’s just plain stupid. They’ve ripped the heart out of the business. Any out-of- business donut shop can tell you that.

OK, I’m feeling frisky again. Ever hear that old saying that actions speak louder than words? Well, nothing could be more evident than this than in the case of a recent article on Billboard.com. The article, titled: Study: 86% Would Pay For Legal P2P, is about as big of a crock of you-know-what that I’ve seen on digital music in a long time. Go ahead and read it. Sure the article seems believable since the author does cite and post a recent study that polls a decent sample size of Swedes. However, to take findings off of a Swedish survey of music users and report it as if it were fact, when every ounce of data says otherwise, is bad reporting. It’s a little bit like reporting on foxes who have been stealing and eating chickens from the hen house. “Hey foxes, would you be willing to pay for chicken too?” Well, let’s look at this dilemma with our reality glasses on.

First of all, Scandinavia, with it’s highly educated, wealthy, tech-savvy consumers have a nice long track record of hacking, hosting and redistributing copyright protected material. Sweden, as is noted in the article, is also the home of The Pirate Bay. This BitTorrent web site has been the thorn in the side to record companies, movie studios and legitimate services for years. They are fueling the 100-1 ratio (conservative estimate) of illegal to legal music downloads which has basically crippled the industry. Times change. It is what it is, but now we’ve got to evolve and figure out a way to legally support the rights holders and artists that create what we covet. Simply stating that 86% off people would be willing to pay for legal P2P is one thing. Actually getting people to do it, when convenient illegal services continue to flourish is something entirely different. I’d prefer to trust the statistics that continue to show the year-over-year massive increases in illegal file sharing despite the readily available resources already providing a “for pay” model. Anyone hear of iTunes or Rhapsody for heavens sake? I just checked, they exist in Sweden. If you’re so willing to pay for it, well…why don’t you pay for it?

At the very least, it should be titled: Survey: 86% Of Swedes Would Pay For Legal P2P. Also, if my logic is correct, and we can apply the Swedish survey model to the rest of the world, wouldn’t this number be even higher in other countries? Music fans in other countries that have stronger laws surrounding copyright infringement would be even more likely to pay—right?. Countries that already had legal teams litigating against illegal downloading would have more users willing to pay—right? I mean c’mon, Sweden is known for having a massive government and super high taxes which has created an underground economy that practically everyone uses at some point. Working around the system and getting things off the books is everywhere and part of the culture. Read about it for yourself here. Fact is, it just makes the survey that much less believable, and that much more ridiculous.

Another bone I do have to pick with the author of the article, is the comparison of the Swedish survey to another survey out of England. He writes, “The STIM survey findings are similar to those of a 2008 study of UK music consumers by the University of Hertfordshire and British Music Rights.” But they are not. In fact, there is no mention at all about the British survey asking consumers if they would be willing to pay for anything. Isn’t this the central theme of the article? The British survey, merely discusses the P2P stats of a different demographic (predominately teenagers). It mentions nothing about anyone paying for anything. It does mention that 80% of teenagers would be in favor of legal P2P. To borrow a phrase from my first grader, “well, duh!”

With digital music sales flattening out, and physical sales almost vanishing before our eyes, it doesn’t take a survey of Swedes to tell us what we already know. Actions do speak louder than words, and we here at Qtrax have been on a long crusade to get the labels on board with consumer actions. Finally, they seem to get it. We’re doing our very best to make our service as consumer-friendly as possible. We were criticized in the article for not being “in line with P2P users’ desired product features.” Well, if supporting the artists and rights holders while delivering free and legal music downloads is not in line with users’ desired product features, there needs to be some consumer education on our part. We know that. We’re working on ironing out all the kinks and delivering exactly what consumers want. We get the fact that everyone wants DRM-free music. Artists and right holders want fair compensation. Everyone wants portability. We get it, and hopefully we’ll be able to make everyone’s dreams come true. However, what’s crystal clear here (and why the article reports only half the story) is that the real desired product feature for P2P music is one thing and one thing only–that it doesn’t cost you a damn thing. Sorry Swedes (and I lived in Scandinavia for a long time), it’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t believe you for one second and any real journalist should’ve seen right through that survey for what it was. Actions speak louder than words—especially in Sweden.

To give it some more perspective, we should look at some other outlandish survey ideas that could easily garner equally preposterous results. Think about it. We might be remorseful on paper, but reality is often quite different. Feel free to post some of your own.

1. Let’s ask recently married couples if they’ll ever get a divorce or cheat on their spouses.
2. Let’s ask baseball players to tell us if they’ve ever taken steroids.
3. Let’s ask drug addicts if they’ll ever use again.
4. Let’s ask obese folks if they eat healthy.
5. Let’s ask fund managers if they ever trade on insider information.
6. Let’s ask priests if they’ve ever had sex.

Survey says? People lie. Even ridiculously attractive Swedish people lie. Good intentions are one thing, actions are another.

The follow-up survey to the survey should be this. “Despite what you said on this survey, how many of you will actually ever pay for music again? No, seriously, tell the truth.” Then apply a truth serum and a polygraph, and I think you’ll get closer to the real results. Or, you could simply take a look at what’s been going on over the past seven years and report on that.

86% Would Pay For Legal P2P? C’mon…we’re not that dumb.

It’s not always about the music. Sometimes, it’s about the comedy.

Back when I was in the 6th grade, a whole new world opened up for me. Yes, I was a member of the KISS Army. Sure, we’d rock Van Halen daily and air guitar along to every track better than the band ever did in their videos. The Rolling Stones, Some Girls, was better than a Playboy magazine, dirtier too. Yet, despite entering a world of music discovery, nothing compared to going over to a friend’s house and playing his dad’s Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, George Carlin and Cheech and Chong records. We mixed in some Monty Python now and again to expand our global horizons. This is where I learned that being funny was just about the coolest thing ever—rivaling being a rock star.

Of course, sitting around a stereo with some fellow 6th grade boys listening to dirty words, farts and other strange sounds off a sound effects record would’ve kept us occupied for hours. Yet we learned real comedy from the masters. It was dangerous, it was scary—and it was pure heaven. The best albums always had great production value, music, but best of all, comedy that lived on the edge. Live albums were often a bit difficult to grasp since you missed a lot of the physical comedy, but letting your imaginations run wild was easy to do. Then came cable TV. We put our imaginations on pause and were enslaved by everything visual. If we couldn’t see it, it didn’t happen. The video replaced the single, and MTV had more influence than radio. This also translated to comedy. The live special, tape or DVD totally took over comedy, which wasn’t a bad thing. But going back and listening to a comedy album is a real a treat too. You get fully lost in the words and you have to trust your imagination to provide the visual. Imagine that, you’ve got to use your brain.

Two newer school comedy albums that are totally worth a listen on Qtrax are Denis Leary’s Lock n’ Load and Sarah Silverman’s, Jesus Is Magic. Now, I’m not saying that this comic material is totally everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, you might have to have a pretty strong stomach to get through all of it, but for me it was a great discovery. You can search for your favorite type of comedy on the Genre page on Qtrax. I did and I’m going to do it again. I hadn’t sat and listened to a whole comedy album in it’s entirety since those days at my buddy’s house. It totally brought me back. A good comedy album is pure magic.

The number one song in the USA right now is Boom Boom Pow, by Black Eyed Peas. I didn’t know this was a fact until I checked in with the Billboard Top 100 today even though I went out to a couple of clubs on Saturday night and probably heard it no less than seven times. To be honest, my best clubbing days are in my rear view mirror getting smaller and smaller, but every once in a while I get out and see what’s moving feet and shakin’ dorsal fins. Boom Boom Pow pretty much followed me everywhere on Saturday night. Like most of will.i.am’s songs, he understands what is hot, and then he delivers a quick and tasty morsel that’s easily consumed in mass quantity, and then it disappears like the secret message in Mission Impossible.

So, your mission, if you accept it, is to go on Qtrax and download Boom Boom Pow and count how many genres and musical styles the Black Eyed Peas borrow from for this track. For example, I’m hearing Moby, T-Pain, Nelly, Daft Punk, Jock Jams etc. It’s almost as if there are absolutely no original thoughts in this entire song, which kind of makes it totally unique—if that makes any sense. You don’t know if they spent one afternoon on recording this track, or if it took years to create. Is it perfectly simple or simply perfect? Or is it somehow duping our brains into heading to the dance floor it so it can steal our credit card numbers and bank PIN numbers. I don’t know. Help me out here.

Total search time on Qtrax for Boom Boom Pow: 4 seconds.
Total download time: 8 seconds.
Total headshaking groovealisciousness: 4 minutes 12 seconds.

So our former client SpiralFrog has finally succumbed, and music industry pundits and reporters are taking the news as a flier for the death of ad-supported music.

This is a mistake.

SpiralFrog had its share of problems, as we well knew when we took on the business in the summer of 2007.  By then, the company had gone through a wrenching management change, a missed launch date and a turnover in investors.  The service itself set out to legitimize music downloading by attracting enough users (the benchmark was 10 million) that SpiralFrog could charge high enough CPMs to brand advertisers that the music would pay for itself.

Keep in mind that SpiralFrog got more than halfway to its goal, at one point garnering 6 million monthly uniques, and was building a nice grassroots following.  It simply ran out of runway.  Based on the feedback we received from journalists and analysts, as well as my own observations, here are the top three reasons SpiralFrog didn’t take off faster as a service:

• It didn’t work with iTunes.  Forget the iPod for a moment.  iTunes has proven to be the de facto media UI for just about all of us, whether we get our music from Apple, eMusic, Amazon or wherever.  Even if you’re downloading your music via Limewire or other P2P networks, you’re still using iTunes.
• It had only two of the four major labels.  The Frog was never able to capture the Warner and Sony catalogs.  If you search a couple of times for music you want and don’t find anything, you’re probably not going to be inclined to come back.  Blame that on the labels who are still refusing to do reasonable licensing deals.
• Search and discovery was frustrating.  SpiralFrog had a nice home page and kept the flow of new music coming, but even I found the search function frustrating.  To be fair, SpiralFrog never was able to add the features — concert listings, merchandise sales — that founder Joe Mohen envisioned for it.

One thing that SpiralFrog did NOT set out to do was be an “iTunes killer,” another favorite media trope.  Joe and his team understood that the service’s incompatibility with the iPod somewhat limited its audience.  But there are lots of folks out there without an iPod, and millions of kids whose primary listening device is the PC — just a fraction of those users would have been enough to propel the Frog. It was a compelling and well thought out business plan.

SpiralFrog did excel at one very critical element of digital music.  The company built a very sophisticated back-end system that matched the holders of the recorded music rights with those who hold the publishing rights.  A lot of folks don’t understand this is a critical distinction in building an online music service.  Publishing rights are notoriously hard to source and manage because there can be many people who own the rights to a single song.  The fact that the Frog figured this out and built a sophisticated system to keep both sets of rights holders happy is one of its most valuable legacies, and sooner or later, someone will figure out what huge value there is in this system and bid for it.

Is there a market for ad-supported downloading of premium content, especially music? When you remember that a vast majority of Internet traffic — more than Google’s total traffic — is devoted to file-sharing, I think the answer is a qualified yes.  Someone’s going to do it.  It’s just a matter of when.

The free, ad-supported peer-to-peer music site Qtrax has relaunched with its own download service, also completely funded by advertising.

The company has secured licensing deals with Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner Music. Qtrax’s initial launch was hampered in January 2008 after it claimed to have signed deals with the four major labels: they said no agreement had been reached.

Qtrax 1.0 is currently only available in the US, but will be available in other countries when version 1.1 is complete. Also, version 1.0 can only be used on Windows operating systems and is not compatible with portable MP3 players, including iPods.

Qtrax’s relaunch follows the recent closing down of two other American ad-funded download services. Sprialfrog, previously the largest ad-based download service in North America, shut down in March, while Ruckus, aimed at college students, closed in February.

In the past month, other ad-funded services such as Spotify and We7 have started paid-for subscription services that are free of adverts and agreed tie-ups with paid-for download services as alternative sources of revenue.

This story was originally published in Music Week.

Normally, I’m a good sport about the ribbing of Qtrax. Hell, I’ll be the first one to admit that things haven’t gone so smoothly and I get of the enormity of that understatement. I’ll even let most of the opinions of others following our story go unchecked, regardless of how factual, opinion-laced or ignorant they are. Frankly, I enjoy the dialog and there is usually something to be learned or gained by simply listening. I’m assuming that consumers are aware that anyone can post anything they want online in blogs, tweets, emails, comments etc. and there is a massive chasm between genuine journalism and the un-checked, sloppy posts of your average blogger (see: Qtrax Music Experience). Yet every once in a while, someone goes too far, and needs a good old-fashioned bitch slap regardless of how small and insignificant their writing is. Such is the case following the post titled: Qtrax: More Frustrating than Q*Bert on a blog called Idolator.

The title was good. I thought I was in for a treat. Sadly, that’s the only thing that was good. I thought of providing a running commentary against the entire story, which is so far from the truth, but realized that would seem petty and would ultimately bore the hell out of readers. So, I’ll trust that you’ve gone to the above story and read it. Go ahead do it now, it’s fine. I’ll wait. Done? Did you read the comments? OK, I’ll wait a bit longer. Cool. Now, here’s my response to you, Mike Barthal, “the amazingly inaccurate blogger” or “the guy with the slowest computer and access on the planet.”

1. If you’re going to count the steps and time it took to download an application that provides you with free and legal music downloads, you should probably know what a “step” is. I counted only 15 actual steps to downloading and installing the application and downloading and playing music, which is about the same as Skype, iTunes, Google Chrome, and come to think of it, most other applications that require registration and action. Just so you know for your future posts, noticing logos, getting drinks, sitting there waiting, admiring bookmarks, reading about FAQs etc. are not steps in acquiring music on Qtrax. You know this, you were just trying to be funny and entertaining. I get that, but if someone comes away with the notion that it takes 34 actual steps to get music on Qtrax, well, then you’ve just lied to your readers.

2. I really started to feel sorry for you with all the time you spent during the download process. Could it be that I simply forgot how damn long it takes to download this beast (a third of the size of iTunes) of an application? Maybe. So, I uninstalled Qtrax and went through the process again. Readers (both of you) of this blog know that I’m not likely going to get a job with the Geek Squad any time soon, so don’t think I’ve got a huge IT advantage. However, I can install a program, have a 2 year old lap top with an Intel Core Duo 2 processor (shazam!) and a high-speed wireless router connected to a cable modem. Let me know if I went too fast for you there, as I can tell I went all nerdlinger there for a moment. Here’s a quick comparison:
a. Installation time. Mike: 10 minutes. Me: 18 seconds
b. Launch time. Mike: 5 minutes. Me: 10 seconds.
c. Music download time: 5 minutes. Me: 2 seconds.
d. Playing song (verify track): Mike: 1 minute. Me: 6 seconds

Now, maybe I’m just a brilliant super-user that should consider a career in something other than writing or digital media, but the whole process didn’t even allow me enough time to get a drink–and I like to drink. To top it off, it was all done in Firefox. That very same browser that you mentioned the downloader doesn’t work in. Damn, ended a sentence in a preposition. See what you made me do?

3. Here’s Mike’s summary, followed by my summary.
Total time: 45 minutes.
Result: A country cover of “Fat Bottom Girls.”
Was it worth it? Not really, no.
Overall impression? It’s like a shitty version of iTunes where you can download some random free songs. So maybe people will like that!

Total time: 3-4 minutes.
Result: Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face”
Was it worth it? Yes, if you like free music.
Overall impression? Thanks for the free music. It didn’t cost me anything which is totally unlike anything on iTunes. Plus,
Qtrax has all the catalogs of all the major labels and a ton of indies, hardly random at all. I bet most people will like that.

Mike, either you are less tech-savvy than me (which is hard to imagine), you need to update your service from dial-up, upgrade your computer from a Commodore 64 or start feeding that hamster some higher protein rodent mix to get a steady power supply. I’m sorry it took so much time. Speaking of that, I’m actually counting about 21 minutes of time for you, but you say 45 minutes. Did you actually go to another site and look up “Fat Bottom Girls?” Seriously, did you? It happens to the best of us, buddy–next thing you know, the whole morning’s shot.

Now, I realize that you’ll have to consider the source on this information. I’m obviously going to take the pro-Qtrax side of most arguments. I understand that the site and the download/installation process need some work. I appreciate any and all comments, especially ones that take a fair critical look at what we’re offering. Like I said, it totally helps us out. However, when a bogus story gets posted and has comments that actually thank the author for an inaccurate portrayal of the facts which support his dislike of our site, then we have to speak up. So, Mike Barthal and the Idolator team, we welcome your comments and criticism. We appreciate you taking note of our service. We applaud your efforts to inform the masses. We give you props for stating your opinions. We just wish you would take the time (really, it only takes about 3-4 minutes if you’re equipped with my space age technology) to get the story straight.

However, what’s really sad about the story, is what’s posted on Mike’s page on the site. Even though some 600 people viewed the story and 6 comments were made, one thing breaks my heart. As it so viciously states on Mike’s page on the blog, “Mike Barthal has no friends.” Seriously, someone change that.

One of the bigger issues surrounding digital music is the leaking of material before the release date. Obviously, this created an issue for any band that was really trying to make a massive splash with their core fans and really boost week one sales. Everyone was so damned concerned that their music not be leaked online. Consider the case of Guns n’Roses, “Chinese Democracy.” Axel and company made everyone wait 13 years for a new album and a blogger with an advance copy had to go and post it on the internet. Tsk, tsk, young internet warrior. Savvy pirates and downloaders got their G n’ R on a week or two ahead of the masses, and now some blogger may find himself in jail (gasp!). However, what really happened was that the record label got a boat load of free PR prior to the release, week one sales got a big boost (even though lawyers sucking the bands and labels dry say otherwise), and the Gunners finally get some press over someone not in the band getting busted.

Consider another story of unintentional leakage (that might be my favorite saying for the next month). Buckcherry got their undies all in a bunch over the leak of a rather randy video of “Too Drunk.” They even issued a press release bemoaning those responsible for the egregious copyright violation and told fans to not to participate in such shenanigans. According to multiple articles, the leak can actually be traced back to the band’s management through the source IP address. The result was a ding to the über indie-cred reputation of the band, but ultimately gave a group that normally lives outside of mainstream PR channels, a boost in popularity. Don’t get me wrong, Buckcherry is certainly my cup of tea and I realize that you got to do what you got to do to get heard out there these day, but please, don’t play your fans for chumps. I’d rather have you say, “Hell yeah we made it all up. Suckers! Wait until our next stunt…” Own it.

Is there a point here? Sure. I want to make it clear that there are two kinds of music fans. Those who pay for music. Those who don’t. Very few people are in between, and bands have to embrace both audiences. The leaking of music actually affects both groups. Consider Rascal Flatts. You don’t need to be a country music fan to know the enormity of their popularity. They’ve got enough awards to fill the Grand Ole Opre, one of the highest grossing tours and a major retail partnership with JC Penney. Their new album, “Unstoppable,” was released yesterday. My guess is that it’ll be number one in sales by the end of the week. Prior to that, they themselves dropped an early single, previewed the album online, didn’t make a fuss when it showed up on various illegal sites ahead of time and here it is, one day after it’s official release (it was actually up yesterday), on Qtrax. Free and legal. For all to enjoy. Well, for all of those in the US with PCs to enjoy (for the moment).

Leaking music can help to inspire sales, gain some PR and even engage with new fans that don’t pay for music, but will pay for a concert tickets, t-shirts, official keg meisters or inflatable furniture. Leakage, although sometimes an issue is not going to hurt you too much in the long run (wait, did I just say that out loud?).

Let it be said that there really isn’t a blueprint for artists to follow anymore. It’s all in flux. A giant industry of trial and error. Certainly, there are some folks (Rascal Flatts) going about their business of self-promotion the right way which others can follow as an example. Other bands aren’t doing quite as well, but I bet they’re learning. Don’t take it personally if your favorite band goofs things up a bit. After all, it’s just business.

Our first order of business is to say to everyone, “Thanks for being so patient.” There, we got that out of the way. Ok, ok, we owe you one more, “thanks again.”

To the rest of you around the globe that are still patiently waiting for your massive supply of free and legal music downloads, please take this USA preview of Qtrax v1.0 as a good sign. Yours is coming.

The coolest thing about finally getting this puppy up and running is the music. This is what it’s been all about from the get-go. We’re still ingesting some of the music, which is why you’ll still see “coming soon” next to a number of tracks, but let’s be real people—there is a boatload of music for you to download and enjoy. One stop on your musical journey might be a search of box sets. I stumbled on the Police’s complete box set, Message In a Box. Unless you have a jet-fueled turbo coffee maker, I bet you can download all 78 tracks on Qtrax before you can brew a pot of coffee. Go ahead, get all caffeinated up and get your Police on.

I’m not going to discuss all the features of the site for a while. We encourage everyone to take it for a test drive and tell us what you like and what you don’t like. We realize that there is still plenty of tweaking to do, but as many of our faithful followers have aptly noted, you got to start somewhere. You’ll note that there is a very seamless transition for previous beta users. This converts all your files and updates the player. All you need to do is download the v1.0 from the site (www.Qtrax.com) and it will convert it for you. Also being discussed heavily on the tech message boards is the speed of the site. It’s fast. “Lighting quick” to quote a couple of users. In the Beta version there was a status bar that monitored the progress of the download, this is currently missing but will return soon. However, fear not your download will happen regardless just go to your library and your song will be there ready to play. It’s that fast, almost immediate if you’ve got a good high speed connection.

Lastly, you may have also noticed that, unlike previous attempts at going live, we’ve left out the fanfare. Don’t take it that we’re not jacked up about what we’ve go going on. Keep in mind, that this is a preview available only in the USA. We welcome your comments and feedback. We’ll make a much bigger splash when we’ve ironed out the rough spots, start to roll it out globally and add portability. So, for now, you can download to your desktop all you want, and no one’s going to call the Police. Except maybe you.

Oh, and thanks again for your patience.

www.qtrax.com

more soon…