Qtrax - ad supported music site

The 12 to 25 year old demographic is 4 times more likely to visit a P2P site than a legitimate music site online (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/297494/1/.html). We've heard about the ad supported model before with companies like http://www.spiralfrog.com (which still hasn't materialized almost a year after they were supposed to launch.) There is a high degree of doubt about the ad supported model, not so much from the consumer as from the industry. Obviously, there are serious logistics issues as a good portion of the SpiralFrog board and directors including the CEO walked out on the company last January (http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6152241.html).

Qtrax (http://www.qtrax.com) seems to be plunging down the same path. A few interesting things about Qtrax' service:

- Qtrax is a P2P network that allows user to legally download tracks as long as the user watches an advertisement.

- The exact ad placement, times, and ad counts are still being worked out (this could make or break them)

- Songs will have a "play limit".

- You will have to use the "MPQ Player" which is a custom media player created by Qtrax.

- You can get songs in MP3, WMA, and/or MPQ (a custom format created by Qtrax. So as long as you download in MP3, then you can use the tracks on your iPod.

The deal killer is the play limit. You can't limit what people listen to. That renders the rest of the service (with some interesting ideas) almost useless. I'm going to have to see this to believe it. No one has successfully been able to navigate the hostile waters of the record industry with this new ad supported model. If they can manage that channel, this could be an interesting service to watch.