Qtrax, a legit p2p site I blogged about over on P2P Weblog, came out with an extravagant promise a while ago; free ad supported p2p, albeit with DRM. Their big launch was marred by accusations of not having licences for major labels, and this was indeed true.

I can now happily say that Qtrax has licences from all of the big record labels, and it's plans are back on track to provide free music to everyone, after Warner music finally agreed to let it's music go onto the service.

Check out Qtrax

Nine Inch Nails, pioneers of the correct way to do online distribution, have done it agian, but this time they've gone one better. Rather than charging for a new album in perfect quality; they've done it for free.

You heard right; Trent Reznor has released his new album, titled "The Slip" entirely for free, and not in crappy MP3 quality like Radiohead did, but in full lostless FLAC, and even above FLAC DVD-A WAV files. It's a truely monumental step for the industry, and really shows what an independant artist can do. A physical release for people like me who like real items as well as digitial copies is planned, so there you have it; everyone is happy! It's a damn good album for those who like that style of music too, check it out.

Theslip.nin.com

Hi all, I just wanted to introduce myself as your new editor here! I'm Jordan, and much like any readers here, I love music, and digital music is even better, so long as it is done correctly. The usabillity and freedom correctly presented digital music gives is brilliant; being able to transfer what you own to various devices, free of restrictions, and then getting the pleasure out of listening to it is fantastic.

I hope I can bring you all interesting and relevant news and info posts; I'll do my best!

Some time ago, I bought the latest Nine Inch Nails "album" called Ghosts I-IV. I bought it shortly after it was announced, but received the CD last month sometime.

I could have easily purchased the download-only version, or bittorrented the album since the Creative Commons license they've chosen to release it under makes that activity perfectly legal. However, I bought a physical copy because I haven't quite made the leap to purchasing digital music without a physical element. Seems kind of strange because I've bought software without a physical element to it.

I think the main difference between digital software and digital music is that the companies that sell digital software make it relatively easy to re-acquire the software if you delete all copies of it. Digital music retailers-even ones that don't sell their wares with DRM-make it difficult to re-acquire. At least if I have the physical CD, I can always re-rip the tracks.

Chances are, if you've got an MP3 player of some sort, you've considered what it would take for the music from the MP3 player to be played through your speakers. To solve that problem for myself, I recently picked up a Philips Digital FM Transmitter (Model SJM2306/27) thru a recent Woot-off. It sucked.

Granted, the product actually does what it says: takes your MP3 player and pumps it over nearly any available FM channel. This device in particular has three memory locations for you to store the stations. The trick is: finding a truly dead FM channel to use.

The Seattle area's radio waves are fairly packed. Finding a dead space in the spectrum to try and use this device is, to say the least, challenging. To make matters worse, if you drive a long distance, spaces that were free are suddenly not free anymore, meaning you need to find another one.

I did manage to find a dead spot in my neck of the woods and was able to use the FM transmitter ok. Here's the problem: even with that dead spot, there was a bit of interference. Sitting next to a bus at a traffic light added to the interference.

And this, my friends, is why FM transmitters suck. They are not immune to interference and, often, you can't find dead space in the air waves to use it.

MySpace is reportedly getting together with a few major record labels to create a music website. The venture which will include Universal Music, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group will aim to be a "one-stop source for all music" and will allow users to listen to free streaming music and download tracks onto mobile devices. Plans are also in the works to offer an unlimited download subscription service and to sell merchandise such as T-shirts and ringtones.

Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned mixtape? The site Muxtape looks to bring back a little bit of that mixtape magic from the past by allowing users to create online mixtapes that can be shared with friends. Each mixtape can hold 12 songs that can be uploaded to the site as mp3's but can't be downloaded by others. This is a pretty neat concept and can be a great way for friends to share music without ummm...sharing music.