Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
You're right. But it takes an effort, and evidence, from shareholders to bring any kind of justice from the SEC. Frankly I'm very surprised that shareholders haven't taken action yet. It just baffles me.
Actually, here's what happens. Klepsy reads this board as it is the only place where Qtrax is discussed. He picks up on the zendesk support thing and pays the $9 to reactivate it, thus giving the impression that he's on top of things. To counter what everyone has correctly pointed out about the uselessness of the web site, he now posts the following on the splash page:
He sure isn't too obvious, is he?
This is all a big charade to try to discredit those who understand what's really going on (and that doesn't take a lot of smarts) and to encourage those who don't fully understand or who blindly believe the baloney they're being fed.
Sounds pretty right on to me!
You're absolutely right!
I signed on from proxies in Malaysia, India and Singapore and there is no--NO--content available for download. It's over.
This guy is outrageous. Frankly his next hotel room should be very small and with no view.
Upon further investigation, guess what?
The corporate website no longer exists either! Is Klepto now trying to pull a disappearing act?
Tis guy cold care less about the shareholders. It's absolutely disgraceful.
I have a question for some of you. How do you launch a music service, even a beta of a music service, without support of any kind?
Well, the answer to that is--you don't.
And guess what? When was the last time you went to qtrax.com? Try going there now, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the support link. You'll get a fun little surprise.
It appears that Klepto hasn't paid Zendesk, his support service, and his account has been suspended. And as you'll see, quite publicly.
If you check out the Zendesk pricing you'll see that it's only $59 per month per agent for the premier package, and at this stage he certainly doesn't need more than 1 agent. So this means that Klepto is either completely negligent (who would launch a product without proper support?) or he can't afford the $59 per month. Or maybe he does have the money and would rather spend it on 5 star hotels.
If anything this should be a clear signal of the beginning of the end.
I'm curious as to what kind of baloney Klepto will invent to explain away this. I can see it now--"uh a slight error in our payables department that will quickly be rectified. It's only a little tiff."
Let me clarify for you.
Spotify is a terrific service that has been in the European market for about 2 years now. It is an existing player who is getting enormous push back from a company that is truly afraid of them--Apple. The point(s) I was making is that the music industry needs Spotify. They need competition. However, as made clear in my latest column, they have succeeded in killing competition because of their tactics and business practices.
I really don't expect many to understand this, as it is complicated and certainly beyond the casual investor's knowledge and experience. But please be clear that iTunes and Spotify do not compete. They are completely different services. The issue is that Apple wants to enter the space that Spotify has pioneered and wants the market all to themselves. They are not afraid of Google, Amazon or anyone else. And for the very reasons that you quoted from my Spotify story.
I happen to know several of the top Spotify people and know that they are in fact very smart and experienced. And well-funded, of course. But don't even try to compare Qtrax to Spotify. Spotify is real and very popular.
Thank you for your support.
I will gladly respond to the baseless aspersions regarding my motivations. I am not, repeat--am not--a competitor to Qtrax. Qtrax has a track record of copying others ideas. Klepto has never had an original thought. He tried to copy me and then Spiral Frog. I simply do not have a dog in the digital music service fight and do not see having one anytime in the future. If you read my column this week (for all of you believers, it was picked up by PaidContent and ATD and was the most read post on PaidContent for the week) I am sad to say that there is no longer any opportunity in the space. The table has been set.
My real motivation? It's simple. I honestly feel that bad actors should be exposed. That's it. So you can rant and rave about me all you like. Frankly, calling me names and insulting me only encourages me. I happen to like it. Because when that happens I know that I have hit a nerve by just speaking the truth.
I'm not worried at all about Qtrax. It is not a player and never will be. And to think that Apple was so scared of them that they torpedoed the famed MIDEM launch is not only insulting to Apple but I'm sure a notion created by Klepto to give himself much needed importance. It wasn't true then and it's not true now. That, my friends. is a fact.
The fact is that here you have a CEO of a publicly traded company who is completely unresponsive to shareholders. Do you think that a real CEO of a real company could get away with that? Klepto doesn't even post his paranoid rants any longer. Though I must admit that I miss them. They gave me much reading enjoyment. Hopefully after reading this post, he'll emerge with a new post. That should be more baloney about the so-called betas. It's all a joke. BTW, how can you operate a music service in places like India with no local repertoire--or even without the native language? The answer is you can't. Qtrax has only a handful of old useless catalog tracks available for download in their "beta" countries. I can't wait to see them try to launch in South America--in English!
Come on. People can't be that stupid. Or can they?
I'd like to make a suggestion, if I may. You deserve to have any and all questions answered by Qtrax management in a public forum. Perhaps everyone should consider writing to Klepto and Lance demanding a shareholder meeting and an SEC filing--but cc the SEC on all correspondence. You may want to consider cc'ing others as well. Klepto obviously wants to ignore and avert answering any questions, so why not try to force the issue? Don't you think that you should have some answers from these guys?
All excellent points. In fact, it is fairly easy to get a reading on the traffic. Just check Wolfram-Alpha.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=qtrax.com
As you'll see, Qtrax.com traffic, interpreted through the latest Alexa stats, is less than meaningless. And has been for some time. Looks like Klepsy's fantastic marketing campaign, which seems to consist solely of empty self-written press releases distributed through PR Newswire. Having been in the PR business for over 30 years, I know all of the tricks. The message this sends is that there is no PR firm working the press releases and the only pick ups are sites that regularly run the PR Newswire feed. In other words, it's garbage.
Once again, Qtrax has never and will never get off the ground. The onset of streaming services like Spotify make Qtrax completely irrelevant. Plus they have absolutely no funds (though enough it seems to pay for PR Newswire--but where's Richie Rubenstein? My guess is that he flew the coop. Wonder if he got paid. And no investor will ever invest in a company with millions in default judgments hanging over its head. I've said this until I'm blue in the face and so many of you fail to get it. Certainly no professional investors will touch it. Perhaps there's a sucker out there somewhere, but even suckers at this point may be a little leery of this dog with fleas.
India, Malaysia, Timbuktu, it's all BS and doesn't matter. NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY will use this POS service. Even if Qtrax had content it still stinks. What good are tethered drm'd downloads? None.
And as far as this ridiculous 360 degree model--what exactly is that? Just more baloney.
But I certainly must admit that I enjoy watching some of you continue to defend your hero. It's a beautiful thing to behold. Keep up the good work!
Some new PR for all of the faithful.
The following ran in Billboard today:
Business Matters: Qtrax, Fontana, Slicethepie and more
September 14, 2010 - Digital and Mobile
By Glenn Peoples
Opinion and analysis of the day's music news.
Oracle Goes After Qtrax
-- Legal P2P service Qtrax has a history of not living up to even its own expectations. It has routinely missed launch dates and goes quiet for months at a time. Now, Qtrax is facing a bill for $1.9 million it was supposed to pay long ago. That’s bad news for a company that needs cash for its startup phase.
A Northern California district court has ruled that Oracle can refile its claim against Qtrax for $1.9 million for software licenses Oracle claims has not been paid. Qtrax had filed a motion to set aside the default but was denied by the judge’s September 3 ruling.
“After numerous efforts by Oracle to negotiate with Qtrax,” according to the ruling, “and many failed promises by Qtrax to pay,” Oracle filed the action in July 2009 and served Qtrax in August 2009. Qtrax’s original plea was due on September 8. The company was given an extension but failed to file a response by the October 23, 2009 deadline. In January, months after the court ruled Qtrax to be in default, Oracle told the court a settlement appeared to have been reached. However, Qtrax never responded to Oracle’s proposed settlement sent in January.
In its defense, according to the court’s ruling, Qtrax argued that its failure to respond to the complaint was excusable because of its CEO’s travel schedule (the court called this argument “not compelling”), its limited resources and its belief that the two parties had reached a settlement (which the court noted was “not supported by the record”).
According to a May 2008 press release, Qtrax was using Oracle infrastructure software to provide the scalable IT architecture for its music service. By July 2009, Oracle had accused Qtrax of breech of contract and was seeking a reported $1.8 million. “I feel both Oracle and ourselves will get beyond this,” Qtrax CEO Allan Klepfisz told CNET last year. (CNET)
Of course this is valuable publicity and will certainly come in handy while Klepsy is pitching new investors. I'm sure many of you can see the silver lining.
There have been HUGE things going on behind the scenes. In fact, $2 million worth of huge.
The US Federal Court denied Klepsy's motion to set aside the default judgment that Oracle was awarded in their little "tiff" with Qtrax. You know. The one that Klepsy said a year ago would be settled in "a couple of weeks".
So this means that the original default judgment stands and that Qtrax is liable and must pay up.
Now if history is any indication, Klepsy will drag this out for another year or so, dodging any Oracle collection efforts. And I'm sure that Klepsy will be spending most of his time conveniently in other countries launching his "Betas", making it all the more difficult for him to be tracked down and served.
The reality is that absolutely no legitimate investor will put money into a company that has huge default judgments from major international corporations hanging over its head. Not to mention the millions in judgments held by other creditors. And by the way, fellas. Did anyone ever notice that Richard Rubenstein's name has not been listed as contact on the last couple of worthless press releases that Klepsy has issued? Klepsy has used himself as the press contact. So what do you think that means? I think it means no more Richard Rubenstein. Looks like Qtrax is now officially a 2 man show. Looks great for the future.
Read all about it here:
http://doc?s.justia.c?om/cases/f?ederal/dis?trict-cour?ts/califor?nia/candce?/4:2009cv0?3334/21743?3/56/
Young man, I think that you may be one of those I was referring to in my earlier post.
Saying that Qtrax has global licenses for free downloads is:
a) unknown and unproven
b) like saying that they have the exclusive global distribution rights for buggy whips.
The model is just old news and you don't want to accept that fact. And if you really think that the record labels have/will throw their full support behind Qtrax, I'll eat roadkill in the middle of Times Square.
You don't seem to want to recognize the fact that Qtrax for all practical purposes is a two-man show. And with all of the obvious funding difficulties that everyone, including Klepsy, seem to acknowledge, there is absolutely no way they can keep up with the technology. If they can't afford to launch, how can they afford the massive engineering required for them to join the 21st century? Another obstacle is that Klepsy doesn't have a creative bone in his body.
And believe me, there is nothing at all I can do to make Qtrax fail. They seem to be doing a good enough job of that on their own. So don't get snotty with me because the reality I bring to light happens to crush your delusions.
I'm glad that you're reading my Music Void column, however I think you may have missed a couple of things. I never said that the iPhone was over. Not by any means. The exact quote is: "I’m not suggesting that iTunes will be toppled" and "... devices like the Galaxy, the HTC Evo, Motorola Droid X and the upcoming HTC 4G handsets, Apple will start to feel the heat very soon unless they start cutting deals with all of the major US carriers." This is by no means an indictment of the iPhone, which is certainly a superior product that is NOT going away. I was commenting on how the sudden uptake of Android poses an opportunity for iTunes competitors. And Qtrax is certainly not in the mix. It is an afterthought and not compatible with any phones that I know of. Maybe old Windows mobile devices, and I doubt that. I don't even think that Windows 7 mobile will play those crappy wma drm'd files. That's ancient history.
But while on the subject of Qtrax, Klepsy has gone to great lengths to keep his legal problem out of the public record. On Tuesday Aug 10, the attached was entered into the record in the PLATINUM LONG TERM GROWTH IV, vs. BRILLIANT TECHNOLOGIES case.
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=Wi6ATK7yODX/5KL8zzmDFw==&system=prod
For those of you who may have severe reading comprehension issues, the judge's handwritten decision states that the case has been "settled as per a stipulation read into the record of August 5, 2010. Record and settlement to be sealed for good cause shown to protect the interests of defendant corporation. Parties only to have access to record."
This is very revealing. Obviously Klepsy hates the fact that I post the public record here and clearly does not want any of his shareholders to have any access at all to the company's legal obligations. He certainly has not issued any statements, SEC filings or any other communiques with the shareholders other than the occasional threatening legal letter to some of his biggest critics. My guess is that Platinum has required him to sign another confession of judgment in a best effort to keep him from bailing out on the settlement, as it appears that he has done so on other occasions.
Also, last week there was a conference in federal court in SF regarding the Oracle mess. If you'll recall, he took a default judgment and then circled back and claimed that the default judgment should not stand because he wasn't around and didn't respond to the suit.
All this leads me to think that he is extremely paranoid and doesn't want the operations of a publicly traded company to be public at all. The only information given to shareholders appears to be nebulous rumor and innuendo leaked on this board and this board alone by certain arm's length company conduits. I think that this should not only be cause for concern for ANY investor, but is obviously the cause of so much of the anger that is voiced here toward the company. And toward me, of course.
I'm sure that I don't have to remind you that the last time you heard anything at all from Klepsy was Dec. 24 of last year. That's almost 9 months ago. And shall I ask when the last time he filed anything at all regarding the state of the company with the SEC, despite his promises to do so more than a year ago? It's gotten to the point that it really doesn't matter if Qtrax gets launched or not. If by some miracle he's able to eek out anything vaguely resembling a legitimate launch, it will never work. Technology wise it is so far behind the curve that it is a non-issue. As it exists now, Qtrax would have had a better chance of success 10 years ago. There's just no way.
Services like Rdio, mSpot, Catch Media, Amazon MP3, iTunes, and Spotify have just left Qtrax so far in the dust that it looks like the Edsel of the digital music space. They are well funded, properly licensed, not crippled by drm, have mobile solutions and are ahead of the technology curve. And to top it off, Qtrax is definitely not on the lips of anyone. The only people who give a s**t are you guys, and there's not enough of you to save this thing. So many of you are right when you say that you should just fold your tent and chalk up the loss. But please don't keep pumping smoke up people's a***'s by saying that great things are happening because it just doesn't matter anyway.
Isn't that just sweet.
Meanwhile, back here in the US and reality.....
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=Wi6ATK7yODVIOdh27u39NA==&system=prod
Oracle Update
Well kids, there's been movement in the Oracle case. Earlier this month Oracle was awarded a default judgment for $1.8 million in US Federal Court in San Francisco. Klepsy then turned around and hired a young lawyer from somewhere in Northern California who, throwing a Hail Mary pass, then filed new papers claiming that Oracle lied to Klepsy in their licensing agreements about certain software upgrades and therefore the judgment should be set aside. Klepsy claims in the papers that he was out of the country for every court date, actually providing copies of his stamped passport to prove it. Naturally he doesn't address the fact that he never responded to the suit in the first place, or ever moved the Court for a continuance if he was to be out of the country. He also states--on the record--that he has not been able to acquire any funding for Qtrax. A hearing is scheduled in a month or two to resolve the issue. There's just no way that Klepsy will pull a rabbit out of a hat and walk away clean on this one. Its just another stall tactic as he has proven to be a master at using the legal system to avoid his obligations.
I know that some of you will now start blasting me with personal attacks and in doing so will completely ignore the facts. How is it that you relish in personal attacks yet never address the real issues? It's interesting to me that some keep defending Klepsy and continue to come up with more excuses for him. When will you all start to understand that there is no way this will ever fly, and if by some miracle he could get launched it still wouldn't succeed. Sorry guys, but tethered Windows Media files just don't get it. Anywhere. Not even Asia. They're smarter than that.
Assessments of the situation from grover, chew, quispy, etc. for the most part happen to be right on the mark.
Meanwhile the A-Team, or rather the D-Team, now consists of Sir Lancelot and Sir Liesalot. Rick is long gone and Robin went public with his departure. Spoke with Robin today. I'm happy that he's finally out of that situation and it appears that he is too. He's very excited about some new ventures that are nowhere near the digital music space. He's lost faith in the entire space, and I can't really blame him. I hope he does well.
In the meantime you haven't heard a peep from your fearless leader in 5 months. They last time he issued a communique, he once again insisted that he would be launching, this time in Jan. But I certainly don't have to remind you of that--and other statements, including veiled threats against some people who post here. I just don't understand how any of you would accept a CEO who does not communicate with his stockholders. And many of you still defend him for it!!
Now before you go launching more personal attacks against me--let's get a couple of things straight. You're right. I am jealous and envious of Klepsy. How could a failure like me not be envious of a man as successful as he? How could I not desperately want to be in his position and have millions in judgments against me? I am certainly envious of his Solitaire status on Singapore Airlines.
Bye Bye A-Team
Dear all
I want to let you know that I have decided to move on from Rebel and by association Qtrax. I'm very excited about some new ventures that I will be announcing in the not too distant future and therefore, cannot continue to devote time to either Rebel or Qtrax. I will not be reachable after 5/27 on this email address. I will be in touch on an individual basis with new contact details.
For those of you still involved in Qtrax I truly wish you all the best.
Robin.
Robin Kent
Founder
President & Chief Strategy Officer
Rebel Digital
I received the following private message yesterday:
Sent By: shotcallers To: Wayne Rosso Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 3:08:08 PM
Wayne, i am limited to one post and since you are not a paid member, maybe you can post this on the BLLN board. Why dont you offer to work with Qtrax in raising capital and getting the ship straightened out. Come on, if you have the resources, it seems you can help each other.
Very insightful analysis. But I have a little more interesting info. There were some interesting documents filed on Monday in NY Supreme Court in the case of Platinum Long Term Growth and J&N Invest v. Klepsy.Of most interest is Klepsy's sworn affidavit, signed and notarized on April 26.
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=Wi6ATK7yODVSqhHQIi9XvQ==&system=prod
In short, Klepsy settled with the plaintiffs and then apparently reneged. Platinum moved for a Confession of Judgment and Klepsy agreed to sign one, but for some reason, although there are emails from Klepsy consenting to the Confession of Judgment, he just never seemed to be able to find a notary. So Klepsy's defense is that the plaintiff's attempt to enforce the judgment has no merit because Klepsy broke his promise to sign the documents in the first place. It's a rather unusual defense, as you'll see.
But I digress. There is some interesting info --here again, from Klepsy's own words, under oath-- about Qtrax financing that I found to be just fascinating. He admits that he has no funding and therefore can't pay his creditors or even afford any shareholders meetings or to make any SEC filings. If that's the case, how is he paying his attorney, and furthermore he claims that he is constantly in the Far East negotiating for funding (he says that the funding that he was supposed to get late last year fell through). If he can't afford to keep shareholders informed, how is he paying for first class travel to Asia?
The bottom line is that Klepsy has obviously thrown some junk up in an attempt to make Asian investors think that he's got something live and will try to milk some cash from them. And of course his shills start crowing like Jesus has just risen from the dead. It's all baloney--just as I said it was. No licenses. None. Zip. Nada.
I suggest that you read up on this particular case as there is a wealth of information including emails directly from King Klepsy himself. It makes for fun reading. But then again, who is stupid enough to believe what they read in the public record? To hell with the facts. Right fellas? God I am so jealous that I'm not Klepsy.
And, I almost forgot. Curious that "The A Team" (God I love that!!!) seems to have taken their names off the site. They are no longer listed on the About page.
Remember--Batman never rests.
Bruce Wayne
That very well could possibly be the case. But no matter what anyone else says, this will never launch.
Here's my take on things. You have to realize that absolutely no one cares about Qtrax outside of this board. Certainly no media to speak of unless they want to call out Klepsy as with the FT. That's just a fact. So in reality everything that Klepsy does is a reaction to what's written on this board, as he and his posse watch it like a hawk. More specifically, he is obsessed with what I write. I am well under his skin and drive him crazy. Why? Because he knows that I'm right. So that is why you see anything at all.
OK. So I heard last week that he was going to or had launched a "private beta" in Australia. Frankly I didn't believe it. But let's assume that the person who made the video did not fake it. Firstly, anyone who suggests that this is a launch is out of his mind. A "private beta" is way different from a launch. And frankly I still don't believe that it is anywhere near what some of you are reporting.
Secondly, my guess is that he may have had a little bit of prepaid credit left with Universal and he's using it to try to send a message that Qtrax is real and is launched. I know that he does not have licenses for all of the majors. Therefore there cannot be a real launch. And particularly in the US, which is absolutely mandatory, no matter what anybody says.
Thirdly, whoever is floating the idea that ipod compatibility is not important is just blowing smoke. Its important everywhere. And no one anywhere wants tethered DRM's tracks. Just not happening. I would have thought that most of you would have figured that out by now.
A service like Spotify has such a head start on the likes of Qtrax that its an absolute joke to think that a DRM'd tethered service could work anywhere in the world. The technology is mundane at best, even that Klepsy seems to have shifted to the web. The client was just crap. So there's nothing new and innovative there. And by the way, what happened to the p2p angle? I told you guys that it was not p2p and that the labels would never let him do what you guys thought would be done. So magically references to p2p and 30 million tracks have disappeared.
My opinion is that this was done to give the impression that Qtrax has launched and to quell the truth tellers on this board and to hype the pumpers up. There's no doubt in my mind that many of the posters here are either insider pumpers or are being easily manipulated. By whom I don't know. But I'm sure I could venture a very good guess.
Ask yourself this: Wouldn't Klepsy be crowing from the rooftops if it had launched? The answer is "yes". Who launches without publicity? The answer is no one. Klepsy never misses a chance to crow. So what does that say? My take is that he doesn't want to draw too much attention. And why would that be? Maybe the likes of creditors and judgment holders are looming. This is speculation, of course. But there has to be a reason for this uncharacteristic behavior.
I maintain that there will be no "launch" with all of the majors--anywhere. (I can see Klepsy saying "What's a launch anyway? It's a launch if we call it a launch") And why? Because realistically there is no way that an investor would put millions into a company just to see it walk out the next day to cover payables and judgments. Impossible. And I don't see Klepsy excluding those payables from any future financing. Just reality. Unless he files for bankruptcy protection, which is a possibility. And that would throw things into a whole new mess.
Sorry, but I stand by my opinion. I have excellent sources and I know how the business works better than anyone on this board. That's a fact whether anyone likes it or not.
You are correct, Grover. This is more BS. First of all, nothing has launched--anywhere. Just out of curiosity I tried to verify from proxies in each of the supposed "launch" countries and every time I did absolutely nothing was available for download. Just as I suspected. And why is that? NO LICENSES. There is no way on earth that this has launched or ever will. Clearly there are some people here who are either up to or promoting shenanigans.
I am constantly criticized for reporting the truth here. And each time I am attacked personally. The facts I put forth are NEVER addressed or answered. Just vitriol.
You people have been had again.
To be specific, I'm told that they no longer have any deals whatsoever with 2 of the majors and that they owe the others a lot of money before they could even begin to offer any content. There's one way to find out for sure though. Make Klepsy file with the SEC. He'd better not lie on a 10-K. And I'm also told that the labels, if by some wild chance get paid, will not vary the licensing terms in any way. In other words, tethered downloads with WinMedia DRM, and that's a best case scenario. Very 2010! Should make for a truly successful service.
Furthermore, if you read the FT story on November 9 (see http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/51c0de26-cd72-11de-8162-00144feabdc0.html?SID=google) about Klepsy's first failed Australian launch, you'd be aware that "Mr Klepfisz said Qtrax had already raised “a lot of money” in the past year. This has diluted Brilliant Technologies, the parent company of which Mr Klepfisz is chief executive, to a 42 per cent stake in Qtrax." And as I understand it, he's sold more shares of Qtrax since then in order to pay for, well, you know.
I'm afraid that you boys don't have a prayer in making this POS fly. I know way more than you guys will ever know about what really goes on and have impeccably better sources. In fact, don't be surprised if most of "the A Team" (I just LOVE that!!!) has nothing to do with Klepsy any longer. From what I hear, its down to Klepsy and Lance.
Chewbaka. For what its worth, I hear on very good authority that at least 2 of the major labels do not have deals with Qtrax. Klepsy and Lance have been in New York visiting the labels and making more promises that everyone takes for what they're worth.
Another thing I don't quite understand is why everyone who is invested in BLLN is so excited about Qtrax (which will NEVER launch ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYHOW) when BLLN doesn't even own Qtrax any longer. As I understand it, Klepsy has sold the majority of share in Qtrax in order to get cash to pay, ahem, to keep the company running.
These people keep crowing about how hard Klepsy and company work--24 hour days--endless travel (Singapore Airlines Solitaire status, I might add), when there's absolutely no company to run. They don't have any operations! What could they be possibly doing? Certainly not meeting with investors 24 hours a day. Nor content owners either. So what is he working so hard on? It's all baloney. Klepsy's propaganda always says that Qtrax is the first blah blah blah, as if it was a real service. IT HAS NEVER LAUNCHED AND THEREFORE DOES NOT EXIST. It gives vaporware a bad name.
Furthermore, what would an investor be putting his money into? BLLN/Qtrax does not own its own technology since it uses Songbird which is open source. And anyone who knows anything knows that you cannot protect any alterations done to code under GPL license. So there's absolutely no IP, which investors always look for.
On top of that, there is no business plan. If there is one, no one has ever seen it! And why would anyone buy stock in a company has not and will not reveal its business plan to shareholders? Who buys shares in a company that does not communicate with its shareholders or even hold annual shareholder meetings?
Chewbaka, please explain that to me. As you can tell from the comments leveled at me by others on this board, I'm an evil, jealous twisted individual who just wants Klepsy to fail. I admit that I am jealous of Klepsy. I wish that I had failed as spectacularly and had written as many bad checks and been sued so many times. It has certainly made my miserable life shallow and empty.
To paraphrase Klepsy when quoting Bob Dylan (he loves to do that), things will be different when he paints his masterpiece. I'm so envious.
Absolutely ridiculous
For some bizarre reason, my previous post was deleted. Let's be clear. As I said in that post, I was not referring to Klepsy.
My post from yesterday concerning my visit from authorities regarding an investigation of someone who has been trying to launch a digital music service is 100% true and accurate. I went on to say in the deleted post that the profiles of Klepsy and the target of the investigation are strikingly similar. And of course I will cooperate fully.
However the constant misleading and inaccurate statements that Qtrax has made specifically about launch dates over the last few years could easily lead to a similar situation. It only takes a shareholder or two to complain to the SEC and the wheels start rolling.
Frankly it was the first time I've ever come into contact with an FBI agent. He was extremely polite. Very nice young man. He did make it clear that I did not have to cooperate at all if I didn't want to, but I certainly would never stand in the way of such an investigation. After all, who would want to obstruct justice?
But that's all I have to say on the matter. I won't comment any further. Just thought some of the devoted would like a little red meat to gnaw on for a while.
Seems like you boys have been keeping a low profile today.
I thought that I'd share with you an interesting experience that I had today. At 9:30 AM there was a knock at my door. It was a special agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a nutshell, he said that the FBI had been contacted by authorities from another jurisdiction to ask me if I would consent to speaking with them regarding a fraud investigation of a (and I'll withhold the suspect's name) gentleman who has been trying to launch a digital music service for some time now.
I'll leave it there. Just thought you boys might find that to be fun.
Yes, sir. You are correct. We tried to raise funds for quite a while after the Virgin fiasco, but I thought that I had made it clear that it became obvious that it would be a long shot at best. After a year or so we realized that there was no point in moving forward for the reasons that I have mentioned previously.
Certainly we lost some money, but not much. Certainly not anywhere into 7 digits. Not even close. The more interesting question is why has AK so brilliantly raised well in excess of $50 million and have absolutely nothing to show for it? Where has all the money gone? $50 mm could launch several music services. In fact, with MB $12 mm would have taken us to break even.
Qtrax doesn't qualify as a failure anymore. Its way beyond that stage. Don't forget--8 years & over $50mm. Where did it all go? You tell me.
And I wouldn't quite refer to this as persevering. At some point reality has to kick in. This is looking more like a pathology.
Instead of rehashing MB, I suggest that you go back through the posts as I have always been very candid about it. I have absolutely nothing to hide or be embarrassed of. If you have any legitimate questions that you'd like to ask, I'm more than happy to answer.But there are some of you who continue to get very nasty and I will continue to ignore those people. This, of course, is not directed at you, Grover, but to that guy minsk or whatever his name. And another thing, one of you keeps stating that "5 launches are underway" when it is completely untrue. There is no launch, and if there was a launch of some kind absolutely no music would be available for download. This is merely the perpetuation of The Big Lie: say it often enough and people will start to believe it. I find that this happens a lot on this board.
Its nice to have such an objective moderator such as yourself. And by the way, Mashboxx was never sued by anyone. Ever.
No, we were not a public company. No one was ripped off.
I've told the story here in the past. In short, at the end of 2005 we went out looking for investment. At the beginning of 2006, we became heavily engaged with Virgin in London. We went through 10 month of very intense DD. They were set to invest $12 million. We were going to change the name of the company to Virgin Play. We were scheduled to close on Dec. 22, 2006. That morning the US DOT denied Virgin America the right to fly in the US. The airline had evidently been accused of breaching the rules concerning foreign ownership of airlines. Virgin management immediately cancelled all new deals in oder to restructure the US airline operation, which was operating at a very high burn rate. Their first priority was to get Virgin America flying.
Needless to say, I was devastated. It literally took me months to even talk yo anyone. We tried to go back to the market and raise funds, but once something like that happens it casts a pall over the project. It was nearly impossible to raise funds and the market had changed, so we decided to move on.
That's the story in a nutshell.
There is no exclusivity in label digital distribution agreements. There's absolutely no upside for a label o do that and consequently it doesn't exist. I think that you are perhaps confusing exclusive promotions with license exclusivity. Two very different things.
There is absolutely no way that one can lock up contracts via copyright or patent. Its a ridiculous notion.
Also, who says that there has been a launch in 5 countries? If there has been a launch, which I truly doubt as there has been no verification whatsoever, there's no music being downloaded. I don't even know if he could offer any software for download due to the Oracle situation.
Actually, that was the model that Mashboxx originated. We crated those licenses from whole cloth as the appropriate language hadn't existed prior to Mashboxx. They were originally conceived by me and Andy Lack, then CEO of Sony. We spent months working with the Sony lawyers to hammer out a new form of license that we then used as a template for the other labels. Once we had our deals signed, Klepsy went in and copied them. Basically said to the labels "can I have the same kind of licenses?" Clearly the creativity to come up with his own unique model was not present.
Since then the labels have backed off and will only allow him to use centrally served DRM content. But I am convinced, with good reason, that he not longer has any label licenses. I don't care what anybody says, I know of at least one label that no longer has a contract in force. Don't bother asking which one. And since I can do the math, I am quite sure that the others have expired as well.
Meanwhile, I don't think that anyone has ever seen a business plan from Qtrax. If you'll recall, Klepsy always said that he would not reveal it because he didn't want his competitors to know it. That's always a convenient excuse.
---The Caped Crusader
I bow to your creativity.
You are correct. You have to understand that Klepsy watches this board like a hawk an reacts to it. This is the only place where Qtrax is being discussed--certainly not in the media or the halls of record labels. This is just another ploy to silence the truth tellers here. No one is going to give this guy any money. That's just a fact. And I still believe that he does not have any licenses that are in force--and I have good reason to make that statement. And why would Klepsy have a real launch without putting out one of his classic press releases? No one launches without media, especially Klepsy (who actually believes that he has credibility).
Gentlemen, this is The Big Lie, and it has been for years now.
The answer is "yes" and "no". They conceivably could do that, but every effort to go B2C in the past has failed miserably. (PressPlay, Real). At least they now realize that they aren't in the retail business. Also, they don't want to go through all of the trouble of setting up and staffing, ad sales, licensing, etc. They would also piss off every retailer in the world and they feel that they can't afford to do that. Also there are definite anti-trust issues that they are extremely concerned about. They don't want any part of anything that could remotely be interpreted thusly. However they will on occasion individually invest in online music plays, of course heretofore with little or no success. Bottom line is that they want to get cash up front from online music plays. They need it and can't afford to go into other businesses.
I just did, and have many times in the past. Why can't you comprehend that?
Thank you.
I follow the board with great amusement and every once in a while I like to jump in when I see that the lies and BS are getting too deep. Also it is fun to see my detractors get so annoyed. I never personally attack anyone yet they all feel that they have license to do so to me. So I figure why not have a little fun. What they don't understand is that I actually feed off of their attacks because I deal with facts and my industry experience. They don't seem to be able to handle indisputable fact. Especially the public record. That is what is so amazing to me. The public record is filled with information that I am merely bringing into the light of day. This is the same information that Klepsy would be required to disclose in SEC filings--that is IF he ever filed any. I honestly dislike liars, cheats, frauds and injustice. And I am not afraid to speak out when I see it. Don't forget--truth is the ultimate defense.
As far as Klepsy's whereabouts go, my guess is that he is lying low in Singapore. My feeling is that he is done with the US. The record labels aren't exactly rolling out the red carpet for him, that's for sure. We're talking about a man who lied to the entire international media here and has never admitted to it. They know that. And believe me, the labels are certainly not looking to Klepsy to be their savior. That is a laughable thought that many here have been trying to not so subtly float. You can always try to reach Klepsy on one of his cell numbers. I posted them a few days ago just in case one of you REALLY wanted to ask him some questions about what was going on.
This is The Big Lie.