Ad-Supported Download Services
February 23rd, 2009 by Lior Shamir
Ad-supported music service, Qtrax, hopes to differentiate itself by offering downloads previously only available as bootlegs. This move may position the company atop of 25 million tracks under this category alone, assuming that that copyright clearance hurdles can be overcome. In the mean time, Peter Gabriel’s competing ad-supported music service, We7, has announced a partnership with NME.com. The strategy is geared toward increasing the value of advertising real estate by diverting traffic to the popular British indie music zine which is likely to improve the combined user time spent online and, resultantly, drive more ad revenue. The two music services have been in the works for some time now and have faced great difficulty in both securing all the major catalogues and financing their operations through advertising alone, a model that will meet further challenges during the present economic downturn when advertisers are being particularly frugal.