Billboard Magazine
March 07, 2011
By Glenn Peoples, Nashville
QTrax's Wishful Thinking? Warner Music
-- -- Is something fishy going on at Qtrax? As Wayne Rosso writes at The Music Void, many Warner Music Group titles have been listed at a preview version of the free music download service Qtrax. Indeed, last week Billboard spotted titles by Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Green Day and other Warner artists listed on the site. As of Monday those and other songs are listed but are unavailable for download.
Recall that Warner is the one major that has been outspoken against ad-supported music. "Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and as far as Warner Music Group goes, will not be licensed," Chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said in February 2010. Two of the four majors - EMI and Sony Music - have signed deals with Spotify for the U.S. Some reports have claimed that Universal Music Group is close to completing a deal, although sources have told Billboard otherwise. The one company that has been not been mentioned in reports of near-finished licensing deals is Warner.
So something would indeed be fishy if Warner had actually licensed its music to Qtrax. It would look a bit peculiar if Warner would not do a deal with an ad-supported Spotify but would do a deal with an ad-supported Qtrax. Even though the two services have their differences in terms of product design and platforms, both are similar in that they offer free, ad-supported music. (Spotify also has paid subscriptions.)
But there's no evidence that Warner has a deal with Spotify. EMI is the only major known to have a deal with the service - an EMI spokesperson has confirmed this with Billboard. Given Qtrax's history of missteps, the existence of Warner listings at Qtrax is more likely to be part of another errant Qtrax launch.
