Major Labels Claim "No Deal" with Qtrax File-Sharing Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 28, 2008 - 10:42am.

Cannes, France - Qtrax this weekend announced the launch of what it claims is the first legal peer-to-peer file-sharing service with tracks from all the major labels, although all of the majors have since stated that they have not licensed Qtrax -- and the service remains offline, according to reports. Qtrax said that it would offer between 25 and 30 million tracks, giving it the largest library of any legal online music service.

Representatives from Sony BMG (NYSE: SNE) and Warner (NYSE: WMG) told Slyck.com that they have no licensing deals in place with Qtrax.In its press release,

"We are in discussion with Warner Music Group to ensure that the service is licensed and we hope to reach an agreement shortly," Qtrax told Reuters on Sunday.

Both Universal and EMI told Slyck.com that they are currently in talks with the company, but that no deals are currently in place.

EMI had an earlier agreement to test the ad-supported Qtrax service, and its EMI Music Publishing unit does indeed have a licensing deal with the company.

Universal Music Group's Peter Lofrumento said talks were ongoing but incomplete.

"While we are in discussions with QTrax, we have not yet signed an agreement. We expect that we will sign an agreement at some point," Lofrumento told Slyck.com.

The service would access songs via a Mozilla Firefox-based client from the Gnutella file-sharing network, and then protect them from unauthorized usage with Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) software.

The beta version of the service was scheduled to go online as of midnight on Sunday, but remains unavailable.