Monday, July 27, 2009

QTrax: another launch to come, then

It's possible to start feeling a little sympathy for QTrax, the perpetually launching-then-delayed online music service. The company's head, Allan Klepfisz, has posted a monster blog entry promising that the sun will come out, tomorrow:

So why is Qtrax unique & uniquely powerful? Because of its licensing contracts, certainly. But also, because of its business model. Refined over the 7 years we spent in the wilderness. Working on the licenses and thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more. Let me make a few reflections in this regard although I must ask you to forgive me if we don’t reveal every aspect of our “secret sauce(s)”.

He just sticks out his chin, and grins...
[Y]ou need to make the site attractive to advertisers. Obvious, you might say. Well, not obvious enough to be a priority to so many sites including most that offer music. They are sinfully unattractive. Especially to advertisers. And user-generated content doesn’t help either. It often makes advertisers nervous. And most of the big sites to date, are based on user generated content. Which gives us a massive opportunity. Because advertisers need to come online to find our demographic. But they want to do it in a predictable environment.

...tomorrow, tomorrow, he loves you, tomorrow...
Fourth, you need to be mindful of your costs. Something that streaming services are discovering. And they account for all of our free music legal competitors. And you need to find a way to make your licensing costs bearable. Something we’ve worked very hard at.

(Not streaming anything would, inarguably, keep your costs well under control)
... tomorrow, tomorrow, you're always...
We are nothing if not dogged. And stubborn. And determined. And God willing, our reward & that of our large number of stakeholders, is that we are very soon going to launch a powerfully attractive music service, with leading internet & media companies as marketing partners. That have existing substantial users. And we’ll progressively roll it out throughout the world.

You're always a day away.


1 comment:

jim jim hopkins said...

he's a visionary. he's been fighting long,hard, paving the way. now some lawsuit with oracle and a bounced check for 1.8 million to deal with. yet again. but, he's really got a vision and he's done much more than loads. yet, it's not all gone well. when he gets the golden ticket. we will applaud him and it will truly be sunshine. i'm thinking Charlie and the Choclate factory phenomena. At least he never gives up.

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