Support from all major record labels?  Check.  Entirely free tracks supported by advertiser revenue?  Check.  These are among the claims made by QTrax which was reborn as a legal online music service today.  The news and the press buzz around the release have left many wondering if QTrax is a savior for downloaders and the online music community or a false messiah of epic proportions.

New York-based QTrax's basic premise is to offer a new face to an old piece of software.  The original QTrax was a Gnutella-based P2P client which allowed users to trade music.  It gained a modest following during the days of Napster.  Its use would certainly be classified as illegal copyright infringement by the RIAA.

LTDnetwork is reviving the dead brand name and hoping to transform it into a household name to rival iTunes.  The new QTrax is headed by CEO Allan Klepfisz, who says that the site will provide users with a better service and what they're expecting:  free music.  He says, "You can't change the attitudes and habits of what is now probably amounting to two generations who believe that music ought to be free on the internet.  Those people are not going to be discouraged by Supreme Court decisions, they're not going to be discouraged by technological interference. Ultimately, what will discourage them is a demonstratively better service."

QTrax utilizes a unique form of digital rights management (DRM) called .mpq, which reportedly took several years to develop.  This content management will protect the song from illegal distribution and allow the song to be played in the QTrax client/player, supported by revenue from ads streamed to the player.  The service will encourage users to pay for the track either by buying it outright, or by paying for a monthly subscription service, which will provide DRM-equipped Windows Media files. 

The biggest claim by QTrax is that it has the support of all four major record labels:  EMI, Warner, Universal Music Group, and Sony BMG.  The service also claims to offer 25 million tracks; more than iTunes which only has around 6 million songs in its catalog.

Furthermore, QTrax makes even bigger claims stating that while its tracks are not currently compatible with the iPod, it will soon be releasing a "fix" to bypass Apple's Fairplay DRM scheme and "put songs on an iPod without any interference from FairPlay."  CEO Klepfisz says that they cracked the scheme themselves and that "Apple has nothing to do with it."  He says the capability may come in March.  However, Apple, quick to release updates to block exploits, may try to close any backdoors that QTrax is hoping to use via its iTunes update service.

If QTrax lives up to its lofty promises, it may provide a digital revolution.  However, early signs make its claims seem slightly tenuous. 

First, UMG and Warner Music both went public that negotiations were not finalized with QTrax.  UMG said that they did have prior experimental contracts with QTrax, but that these contracts had expired.  It stated that they were in ongoing discussions QTrax, but nothing had been finalized.  Warner simply said it never had a contract with QTrax, despite ongoing negotiations.  A spokesperson stated, "Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax's recently announced service."

An EMI spokeswoman made a similar announcement to UMG's, stating, "EMI Music had an initial agreement with QTrax, essentially a license designed to help them experiment with this ad-supported model had licensed songs to QTrax.  QTrax didn't launch the service during the period of the agreement -- I think we initially did this two years ago.  We're now in talks with the company about a possible new deal, but as of today, they don't have a license with EMI Music."

With three of its four contracts apparently not in place, what exactly QTrax will offer is uncertain.  Worse yet, the client was supposed to be available for download at midnight this morning, and it currently still is not available for download.

How exactly the noisy and misinformative launch (or lack thereof) pans out remains to be seen.  If QTrax can indeed wrangle new contracts with the majors, get its client up and running, and provide a working iPod hack perhaps it will become the next phenomena.  Until then its claims seem increasingly unbelievable.

Despite a much lower profile launch, similar ad-driven music download service SpiralFrog may have more lasting success then QTrax.  It launched with solid support from UMG, and met its reported release date and had content ready.  QTrax, despite big claims is appearing more and more to be nothing but a bunch of hot air.