Pigs don't have to fly.

Why give up a career of wallowing in the trough and dubious levels of personal hygiene, just for a new business perspective and a new marketing ability?

The industry is doing what it's always done: Sabotaging, souring and obstructing anything involving people listening to music.


Qtrax, meanwhile, says it’s experiencing technical difficulties, or words to that effect.

In practice, it screwed up, completely.

The Sydney Morning Herald:

“Qtrax did not provides users with the codes needed to download music through its software, although users were still able to use other features built into the application, including browsing the internet and playing media files, the company said on Monday.

Qtrax said it would distribute the codes required to use all of the music service's features once it obtained all the music licenses.
Some 61,000 unique users per hour were using the Qtrax software by midday, the company said.

Repeated attempts to download the Qtrax software from its website on Monday were unsuccessful.”

So it was already a technical mess, and then became a legal mess.

There are no licenses granted by the labels. A deal was struck earlier to allow limited numbers of downloads before offering purchases. This is pretty standard fodder in the download market, a few samples followed by a sell. But nothing like Qtrax sales pitch.

Originality in business methods isn’t a hallmark of the music industry, either. That idea would have had a hard time flying, wind assisted.

The Radiohead approach simply isn’t in character with an industry that prosecutes people for downloads and file swapping.

The industry has been working on unit values, like any good collection of retailers, and the Qtrax model just isn’t in the pattern.

Nothing resembling tolerance of music lovers has ever been reported. The whole concept of a way of attracting millions of users is unlikely to have made any impression. The idea of not ripping people off would be a first, too.

The basic policies are those of a pure merchant culture. Logic, particularly legal logic, isn’t a necessity.

For example, the inconsistency that if you buy some music, and give someone that music as a birthday present, you may be committing a breach of the law. You can give someone a CD, and you’re sweet. Do that online, and you’re a “criminal.”

Not that anyone expects the law to enter the 20th century yet. The basic legal principles of property are apparently a bit beyond it.

Perhaps a new crayon and some glitter paint would help.

Or they could borrow a brain from a passing cockroach.

Because no amount of rational argument has given users any legal rights at all, so far.

The idea of normal, common law, uses of recorded music just hasn't penetrated.

The SMH article reads like an obituary punctuated by some mild screams from Qtrax. There’s no indication the Industry Of Human Misery will be winning any Noble Prizes for services to humanity in the near future.