Qtrax Launches "100% Legal" P2P Music Sharing System

More signs that the Berlin Wall built from antagonism against consumers by a litigious music industry is crumbling: According to numerous news stories, a new service from Qtrax will offer music from major labels, available for download and offline use on MP3 players and the like, for free.

Qtrax is ad-supported, with fees paid to labels on a per-download basis. Tracks downloaded are encrypted with Windows Media DRM, which means they'll play on portable devices that support the WMA protected format but not on iPods (and some other devices). (The goal seems to be to prevent sharing the files outside the Qtrax network.) An iPod version is said to be in the works. I'm not thrilled about the DRM (particularly since I know the songs won't work on some of my audio players), but I do like the price.

The beta version of the service launches at midnight (EST) tonight (that is, the morning of January 28, 2008). Qtrax is a plug-in for Firefox and songs can be downloaded without additional software beyond the plug-in. The company claims 25 million songs are available, far more than are available on iTunes or Amazon. That's an amazing figure, if it ultimately proves to be true.

Along with Amazon's signing of the last label to offer DRM-free music and Last.fm's recent service update to stream most music on demand from start to finish, Qtrax's move is one more step toward all music being virtually freely available, without restrictions, and it adds yet another compelling choice fwhere you can get your tunes. I'll be giving it a try as soon as it's publicly available. If you also decide to take it out for a spin, please post your own comments below!

UPDATE: As of the morning of January 28, the service is still not live and some outlets are reporting that Qtrax may not be all that it says it is. Additional updates as they emerge.

LINK: Qtrax