EMI Group announced on Monday that it was making its music catalog available to the first advertising supported peer-to-peer service, as the entertainment industry realizes that it must embrace this new model of entertainment business.
The service will be called Qtrax, and was developed by LTDnetwork based in New York. It is scheduled to launch later this year. Users will be given the option of downloading the music for free after watching ads or paying a premium subscription for a non-ad experience.
Details of the transaction were not revealed but there will be a revenue-sharing model in place for the advertising and download sales.
The peer-to-peer offerings allow users to download audio and video programs from any user that has the wanted files.
After taking a huge licking, the music companies and film studios are beginning to embrace these P2P services. Their ignorant suing of individuals and companies in an attempt to manipulate the market is a mass failure, and this is the beginning of a new wave of a business model that must come from the entertainment industry.
When I say new wave above, I'm referring to the free downloads in exchange for viewing ads.
Of course this isn't the first foray into this field as Warner Bros. (TWX) has been selling on P2P networks overseas since the beginning of the year.
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