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As I said, that's the conventional wisdom. Why else would anyone buy stock in this garbage company? Think about it. It only exists in the minds of a deluded few who amazingly believe that this is an operational entity. As I've said many times before, Qtrax is insolvent. They have no music and when they did, it was terrible. They have no users and never did. They have no income and never did. They have no employees. They have no assets and never did (no patents or proprietary technology). They do, however, have a lot of judgments.
Actually I think that Klepsy's personal life is relevant as it is a character issue that speaks directly to his conduct in bouncing checks, lying to his shareholders, deceiving journalists and employees, stiffing vendors and defrauding investors.
Thank you.
Actually you're wrong about Spotify. They now have about 10 million active users and more than 2.5 million paid subscribers.
Absolutely no effect whatsoever.
Qtrax is dead. The files no longer play and have timed out. Eve if they did work, Qtrax just can't compete with Spotify, even big it is free. Spotify has killed any chance that Qtrax once had.
I understand that Klepsy got married--again--over the holidays in Australia. I thought that he was such a good, loving husband and family man. He married the woman he had stashed in his NY headquarters for the last several years. Eastern European young lady, as I understand it.
I'd like to know how he paid for the wedding. In fact, who paid for his first class plane ticket to Australia? He's been hiding out in Singapore and Australia for many months now. I'm sure that he's not too anxious to come back to the US anytime soon due to the millions in judgments against Qtrax and him personally. Plus he seems to have lost his world headquarters in NYC.
How and why this stock is still trading is baffling. I notice that some diehards keep coming on and posting the tired old "something big is coming next week" lines. People seem to be wising up about that old ploy and not taking the bait. The congenital wisdom is that a couple of brokers keep trading the shares back and forth to keep the illusion going. Or should I say manipulation. The SEC is probably way too busy to bust Klepsy because it's really just small potatoes. And Klepsy knows that so he takes advantage of it. That's how he's been able to get away with this fraud for so long.
It's simple. really.
The files no longer play, therefore no service.
No music=no music service.
All of Klepsy's last round of promises--mobile app, catalog of millions of tracks, music added daily, more countries, big advertisers, big new investment--all not true--again!!!
Hopefully everyone will now stop fooling themselves and admit that Qtrax is a total bust and worthless. It is one big elongated fraud.
Looks like the party may be over.
Qtrax files are not playing. Every time you go to play a track, a window pops up asking you to sign in--even if you are signed in--and the files do not play. I'm sure that the dozens of Qtrax users will be very disappointed.
Yes...the HQ is probably Klepsy's hotel room at the Grand Hyatt.
I'm sure that at this point it would be very unwise of him to locate in the US. In Singapore they don't know that the company has more in judgments against it than its entire market cap. That, my friends, means that Qtrax is insolvent.
Actually, no.
Since Spotify is doing so terribly, I guess this is meaningless:
Spotify hits 2.5 million paying subscribers
Swedish online music star Spotify said Wednesday ahead of a mystery announcement next week that it has reached 2.5 million paying subscribers.
"Fanfare! Drum roll! Yes, we're excited to announce that we've now welcomed 2.5 million paying subscribers to the service," Spotify said in a blog post.
Spotify, which launched in Europe in 2008 and expanded to the United States in July, did not provide a country-by-country breakdown for subscribers to the music streaming service.
Spotify had 1.6 million paying subscribers in June and much of its recent growth appears to have come from its availability in the United States and an integration with Facebook in September.
Spotify, which boasts a catalog of more than 15 million songs for listening on computers or mobile phones, has more than 10 million registered users.
Spotify has invited reporters to attend a press conference in New York on November 30 with chief executive and co-founder Daniel Ek.
"What's next for Spotify?" the invitation teased without providing further details.
Last week, Spotify expanded to Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.
Spotify offers three services: a free, ad-supported streaming service, an ad-free $4.99 a month plan for computer listening, and a $9.99 a month plan allowing subscribers to download as many songs as they want to a mobile phone.
http://liten.be//S7R94
By the way, Spotify did this with absolutely NO marketing or ad dollars. If you for one minute think that Klepsy is capable of achieving 1/20th of this you should buy all the shares you can get your hands on. You'll be able to wallpaper your house with them.
Klepsy and Qtrax don't have a prayer--never did and never will. I find it humorous at this point that the faithful are still defending him and spreading the "wait until next week" or "good things are just around the corner" baloney. Even if it were true, which it is not, it wouldn't matter. Nothing, including the return of the Messiah himself, can make Qtrax a success.
Besides, DRM was right--how can a company exist, let alone raise money, when it has more in monetary judgments against it than its entire market cap? It can't because effectively the company is insolvent. No one wants to address that fact.
BTW, I have yet to hear anyone provide an explanation why there has been no new releases for the whole year on Qtrax. What does that tell you?
Happy Thanksgiving.
You're right. There is no point.
That's just a review of the service. What's that got to do with the failure of Qtrax?
Spotify has millions of users--for its free service--and over 2 million paying customers, more than Rdio, Mog and Rhapsody COMBINED. How can you even begin to equate Qtrax with Spotify? Reaching for straws.
Right.
That sounds familiar.
Not a prayer.
Everything I wrote is in the public record. Each side makes its statements through their legal pleadings and the courts issue written judgments. Every side is thus represented in the public forum. Ergo it has the added benefit of the truth.
Looks Like Klepsy Is Screwed
Remember a few weeks ago when John Fife filed a motion for contempt against Klepsy?
Well, looks like the judge in the matter has frozen all of Klepsy's assets to the tune of $1.3 million.
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll/C_PDF?CatID=702198&CID=102230-2011&FName=1
But that's not all folks!!! Guess what? Last week 4 more lawsuits were filed against Klepsy for stiffing other lenders. He borrowed $250,000 from what appears to be 4 private citizens in NYC and just out-and-out stiffed them.
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll/SQLData.jsp?IndexNo=653058-2011
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll/SQLData.jsp?IndexNo=653057-2011
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=tirVQewp3Wthm2sThhECxg==&system=prod
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=tirVQewp3WvCLcwyBik9HA==&system=prod
So just add this to the $2million for Oracle and the $1.3 million for John Fife.
But not too worry. It's just a series of minor tiffs.
Gentlemen, this is your CEO. Congratulations.
Absolutely Pathetic! This pig went from 7 cents a shore two years ago almost to the day down to the point where many are actually begging--cheering--for it to break a penny. Anybody who thinks this is going anywhere is hallucinating, or trying to hype.
NO NEW MUSIC!!!! EVER SINCE IT LAUNCHED!!! What's wrong with you guys? Don't you get it? You can't have a successful music service WITHOUT NEW MUSIC!!
It's all old junk. Someone posted an article about Coldplay not licensing their new album to streaming services. But they have all of their catalog. Try finding it on Qtrax. And no one has yet to address how these hucksters plan to pay off Oracle. I'd love to hear Klepsy's explanation for that one. "It's just a little tiff."
Trick Or Treat, Klepsy? Oracle Update
As you all know, Klepsy went back to court with his classic "the dog ate my homework" defense to vacate a judgment from Oracle for $1.8 million.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4:2009cv03334/217433/76/
You should be interested to know that the judge ruled...in favor of Oracle. There is now a valid judgment against Qtrax and 10 John Does for $1.88 million plus 7% interest. In addition, Klepsy is barred from using any Oracle software and must return any and all copies of the software in his control or possession back to Oracle.
May I remnd you about how Klepsy described this as "a little tiff" that would easily be resolved and that Qtrax and Oracle would happily skip down the yellow brick road together once they put it behind them. Somebody wil be skipping all right, and it ain't going to be Oracle. You can bet that Klepsy will be skipping out of the country to avoid this judgment.
The judge gave them 90 days to try to reach a settlement, but we all know Klepsy's MO. He'll strike a settlement deal with Oracle and then renege, thus forcing Oracle to restart the meter and begin the process of enforcing the judgment anew.
So good luck trying to find investors, Klepsy. Not that anybody would seriously invest in this pig anyway. It's a total sucker bet. You might want to start dumping this crap if you haven't already.
"No help desk at qtrax.zendesk.com
The help desk configured at this address is no longer available."
Looks like Klepsy hasn't paid his Zendesk bill again. This guy is unbelievable. Not only does he have extremely outdated technology, one of the ugliest web sites in web history, nothing but old content with absolutely no new music for months on end, but now no customer support. If you check the forums, the only one with any posts is the support forum and that is nothing but complaints.
So should anyone wonder why he has no users? It's a total joke. After all this time and wasted money, not to mention the complete lack of communication on Klepsy's part, it is completely mind boggling that anyone would continue to support him. How many years has it been since he promised to "bring the company accounts up to date"? It's been, what, 4 years since he released quarterly or annual financials? How long has it been since he held a shareholders' meeting? Never? How about since his last communique via blog post, always implicitly threaten me and anyone who calls him out? Two years? Whatever happened to the great Baidu deal? Nothing. It was a sham to begin with. How about the mobile client? Whatever happened to that? It costs more money, that's what happened. No serious investor will give this bum a dollar. And they shouldn't. It's a disaster--a $50 million disaster. Where did all of the money go? It sure is not in the product.
People may still dream that this thing will explode, but it will NEVER happen, no matter what Klepsy does. He's flat out incompetent.
Baloney.
Another thing that's not bogus: There is no music on Qtrax that has been released within the last year. No "music service" can survive without new content. Explain that, if you can.
Looks like the Brits aren't Klepsy fans either!
The Independent calls out Klepsy and Qtrax for being ultra lame. Absolutely no chance in hell that Qtrax gets any traction whatsoever and Klepsy certainly is, well, you know what he is.
Anybody who actually buys the stock would be better served to just give the money to homeless people on the streets.
Cyberclinic: We don't like MP3s – we like the sound of music
By Rhodri Marsden
Monday, 26 September 2011
I like to think that humanity's futile attempts to monetize the free consumption of music will, one day, be regarded with the same hilarity as alchemist's attempts to extract gold from urine.
Here's the utopian vision envisaged by a service called Qtrax: you download songs, without paying, and listen to them as often as you like in the knowledge that the artist has been paid. Somehow.
If you've not heard of Qtrax, that's probably because it hasn't launched in Britain yet – but its story is a magnificent example of corporate hubris.
Back in January 2008, a swanky party in Cannes saw a performance by James Blunt herald the launch of the service, which would offer 30 million tracks for free download following deals with all four major record labels.
The next day it transpired that no such deals were in place, prompting bemusement and hilarity in the industry. CEO Allan Kleptisz later spoke of his "humiliation". A relaunch in June was beset by technical problems, and since then Qtrax has become something of a running joke. If nothing else, Kleptisz has displayed remarkable tenacity; today he finally has those deals in place – although the record companies are making it very clear that they're "short-term" only.
Qtrax has a noble aim: to lure illegal downloaders away from their habits. Illegal downloading is attractive, of course, because you get what you want for free. The drawbacks are that it's slow, erratic, and there's an infinitesimally small chance you could be prosecuted.
But Qtrax is also slow and erratic, and while there's no chance of ending up in prison, the process of installing Microsoft Silverlight, then installing the clunky Qtrax player, then finding tracks available to download, and available to play, and waiting for the "individualising" and "acquiring license" processes for each song, and being forced to sit at your computer to listen – it's enough to drive anyone to The Pirate Bay.
Qtrax is based on an assumption that we like sound files, that we like collecting them. We don't. We just like listening to music. There's precious little point in attempting to replicate the mechanism of illegal downloading – not least because to get record company agreement, restrictions have to be put in place which immediately make it more annoying than downloading illegally.
Spotify got it right; it's easy to use, and the fact that the files aren't sitting on your computer doesn't matter. If you want the files, you pay a subscription. Qtrax, meanwhile, expects to reward artists with the proceeds of a few banner adverts, one of which says "Free Music!" in large letters. But these days, "Free Music" has become about as enticing an offer as "Free Compost".
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/cyberclinic-we-dont-like-mp3s-ndash-we-like-the-sound-of-music-2360832.html
Wishful thinking.
Let me ask you this: If Qtrax is so great, how come there are absolutely NO new release available for all of 2011?
Its all old junk that the labels don't care about. Furthermore wasn't Klepsy publicly claiming last March that he would have a mobile client "in a few weeks"? And how's that Warner deal going, Klepsy?
Oh, and how about that terrific Qtrax/Facebook integration? Zuckerberg was thrilled that they're on the new platform. It's his favorite music service. How much would you like to bet that Zuckerberg has never even heard of Qtrax?
Keep living the dream, baby. You gotta love the alternate reality that is Qtrax.
Klepsy will go all right,
Right to jail for contempt of court,
Klepsy's done it again!
John Fife of Chicago, Il sued Klepsy a few years ago for all kinds of reasons. Fife and Klepsy agreed on a judgment a year ago. Now Fife has field a motion for contempt against Klepsy. Seems as though our hero AK reneged on the deal.
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASSearch
Go Klepsy!! You're my boy.
You don't even have to think about it, DRM.
Qtrax is a complete non-factor. No one in the business even thinks about it and Klepsy continues to stiff some of his ex-employees and vendors. It's always "the funds are being transferred next week" or "I sent a check last Monday". He keeps telling everyone that he has new funding coming on a certain day and miraculously it never shows or falls through or the investor lied to him.
As I said the other day, Qtrax is beyond over. interesting how silent the Klepsy supporters have become. Seems as though everybody heads for the hills when reality finally dawns. I'd be embarrassed if I had stridently defended this charlatan Klepsy.
The web site doesn't look all that new and improved to me. Same old ugly garbage. Its one of the worst sites I've ever seen. Hideous.
Klepsy was in London last month begging for license extensions. On hands and knees at Warner. They still won't license him. But it really wouldn't matter anyway as this has proven to be a total loser. It's a very entertaining burn out though. I'd be willing to bet that once Qtrax goes dark, Klepsy will say that it's a retooling.
The answer to your question is no.
When you click to pay a track, it pings a separate drm server for authentication. It does not contact the website and therefore is NOT a page view.
I would guarantee that any shares that Robin Kent holds in Qtrax are not registered. That is a common tactic for Klepsy. You are grabbing at straws if you think that Robin Kent has or will have any further association with Qtrax. I know for a fact, and he has confirmed it in his tweets, that he has no contact whatsoever with Qtrax. Why have you grabbed onto this?
In my view it is nothing more than some sort of desperate hope that things will turn out well for Qtrax. Even with Robin, it still wouldn't work. Why? Because Klepsy is calling the shots and he does not listen to advice from anyone. He was warned by his entire staff not to go through with the MIDEM launch. He ignored them and did it anyway.
No one can save Qtrax, certainly not Klepsy. Anyone who thought that they could come in from the outside and fix it would be out of their mind. Qtrax is a laughingstock in the music industry. Certainly the traffic stats reflect that. The brand name is so destroyed that it would be next to impossible to rehabilitate. The business model is absolutely unworkable. No one makes money from affiliate deals. Everybody knows that. It's a proven loser of a model. There is no way, as its demonstrated now, that Klepsy can afford to pay for the content.
BTW, many of you and Klepsy are promoting that Qtrax has permanent downloads. Let's set this straight now. They are NOT permanent downloads. They time out. Why do you think that they have to ping a server for a certificate every time the tracks are played? Yes, they keep count of the number of plays as well, but that's not for the artists' sake, as Klepsy is saying. That's to keep Klepsy honest! The record company owns the master recording, not the artist. That is to keep track of the number of plays that Klepsy owes to the record label. And music services do not pay the artists directly, unless he owns his on masters and is licensing the service directly. What Klepsy has is the equivalent of streaming and he clearly must be paying per stream by his own admission.
What part of he is not involved and has nothing to do with Qtrax don't you understand?
How much more clear can he be?
He will not be returning to Qtrax under any circumstances. PERIOD. He has a new venture and that's what he's focusing on. NO WAY HE RETURNS TO QTRAX. FACT.
Frankly, there'll soon be nothing to return to anyway and Robin's a smart guy--he knows.
Ever ask yourselves why he left in the first place?
I read the tweet, and you CAN'T tell anything about his support Qtrax or his own company for that matter.
Stop reading tea leaves and wake up.
Will you please leave the man alone?
Robin is a nice guy and NEVER talks about Qtrax. Period. He has noting to do with them and is completely immersed in his new venture.
He couldn't care less about anything else. Can you bring yourself to deal with that?
True.
I spoke to robin recently and it is a new ad venture he and some colleagues are launching.
Now that's what I call making the glass half full! LOL
Keep dreaming.
Sorry boys, but no mention of Klepsy.
Baidu to Launch Licensed Music Service in May
April 06, 2011
By Reuters
Baidu Inc, China's top search engine, will launch a licensed music search service in May, in a move to legitimize its current music search that critics say enables music piracy.
Baidu will launch Baidu Ting sometime in May, said Kaiser Kuo, a Baidu spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. The service will allow users to stream, download, create libraries of licenced music and will have a social-networking aspect.
Music piracy in China has cost record labels hundreds of millions in profits. Most of the music available through Baidu's current Mp3 search service is copyright infringing.
"Our members want to partner with and invest in China's digital revolution, but they cannot do so while the music service run by the dominant Internet company, Baidu, facilitates infringement of the rights of artists and creators online," said International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a body representing record companies globally, in a letter to the Financial Times last month.
Baidu is the dominant search provider in China with more than 70 percent of the market by revenue.
Last week, Baidu said it reached an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) to pay fees to MCSC for every song downloaded using Baidu Ting. The licenced music service will be supported by advertising.
The agreement covers publishing rights and Baidu will compensates lyricists and composers through MCSC. The firm is still working toward a more comprehensive agreement that will cover performance rights as well.
Baidu is also in talks with major international record companies such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for a similar agreement.
Baidu already has an agreement with EMI Group through the current agreement with MCSC, Kuo said.
"We hope for an outcome in the near future," Kuo said.
Baidu has been involved in court skirmishes with international record labels over its Mp3 search service that allows users to search for and download copyright infringing music.
In January last year, a Beijing court cleared Baidu of copyright suits and said the search engine did not break any laws.
Earlier in the year, the United States Trade Representative office spotlighted Baidu as a notorious market for piracy.
Baidu also recently removed hundreds of thousands of infringing material from its Baidu Library product after a group of Chinese authors accused the search engine of not respecting copyright laws.
Google Inc launched a legitimate music search service in China in 2008 but after a quarrel with Beijing last year over censorship and hacking, Google moved its music search to its Hong Kong website.
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/baidu-to-launch-licensed-music-service-in-1005113332.story
And exactly which calendar are they on?
Islamic? Persian? Hebrew? Hindu?
Whatever it is it's certainly not the Gregorian.
What does it say about a stock when a $40 buy (and in many cases less) can move the share price?
You are correct
Nobody goes into "preview" mode to work out the bugs and then goes out and promotes it. The whole point to stress testing is to keep traffic under control. But that doesn't seem to be a problem for Klepsy anyway.
This whole thing is geared to sucker some investor into throwing his money away.
These guys are rank amateurs. If they weren't they would have had legitimate private equity money years ago. In fact, they went to practically every vc firm in the country and nobody would touch the model.
Every VC does DD so Klepsy wouldn't have a prayer scoring money from them. It looks to me as though he's focusing on clueless Asian investors. There's lots of them floating around Honk Kong. Unfortunately these are the type of investors who don't like losing their money and tend to use "unconventional" methods to get their money back.
What a couple of chumps these guys are.
complete BS
I'm surprised he didn't go on a rant about me. That would have been a lot more interesting. This guy is so full of it. It's just unbelievable.
I think you should all buy as much BLLN stock as you can get your hands on. Mortgage the house. Close your IRA. Send the kids to public school. They probably won't need college anyway as they'll be able to live off of your BLLN profits. Go for it!
Let me try to make this simple for you. The tracks are drm'd. That means they can only be played on a computer UNLESS he has purchased the rights to allow them to play on mobile devices. THEY CANNOT BE BURNED EITHER.
I don't understand why this is so difficult to grasp. Also, I addressed the straaman argument about China, Brazil, India, SpiralFrog, etc. in a previous post.
For that argument to hold up, then explain why the US is the biggest music market in the world?
The people in the countries you mention already get their music for free anyway, and all mp3--in other words REAL music files. Not this lame garbage Klepsy is pushing. That stuff is like counterfeit prescription drugs.
If someone in China, Brazil or India is already downloading mp3 files that are portable with total ease and free of any prosecution, what's the motivation to get that Qtrax junk?
The answer is there is none.
And what happened to SpiralFrog and their entire model? The same model that Klepsy is using, and with results not 100th as good.
Actually Spotify and similar services use caching so that a mobile device doesn't even have to have a constant internet connection for the service to work. You must also understand that these rights cost more than simple drm junk. Even now Klepsy doesn't have the rights to stream/download to mobile devices--only computers.
Very well articulated.
You've gotten to the crux of the situation. All valid questions that not only need to be answered but absolutely astonishing that shareholders must beg for the answers from their management team.
Never heard of running a pubic company this way. Klepsy must think he's Jack Welch and doesn't need to answer to anyone.