As we mentioned yesterday, QTrax is finally having its launch. Yet while they’ve initially ballyhooed the idea that all four major labels are in support of the legal peer-to-peer music service, it seems someone at the new startup didn’t fact-check with Warner Music Group prior to passing on the press release.

According to Peter Kafka of Silicon Valley Insider, Will Tanous, a spokesman for Warner Music Group, confirmed that QTrax does not have an agreement with the P2P service. When the service launches tonight, if they do so with Warner’s tracks in place, it could mean all legalities haven’t been sorted out as they proclaim. Mr. Kafka’s sources say that QTrax and Warners did have an agreement they signed in 2006, but it expired in 2007 with renewal of the contract.

Also, while there aren’t many details yet, it seems there may be a similar conflict between message first delivered yesterday by QTrax and that which is given by Universal Music Group.

All-in-all, this is not an auspicious start for the supposedly “legal” P2P music service. The company has a history of problems in trying to get started, and if you make claims of having major labels signed to your service that aren’t, that’s a good way to blow your reputation real fast. Companies are going to question your reliability, advertisers will wonder if what they’re supporting is legal, and users will be more confused than ever. QTrax (and perhaps its partners as well) need to get their house(s) in order, and soon.

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Sony Ericsson announced the expansion of their PlayNow arena app today at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, France. Mark Wilson of Gizmodo relayed news this afternoon that the “over-the-air”(OTA) music service has signed with 10 major record labels such as Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, and more to add 5 million music tracks to its library.

The service is also adding a new feature named TrackID to PlayNow arena, allowing users to identify songs they hear on the radio or in a coffee shop, and subsequently purchase the songs from online catalog wirelessly. They will also be able to browse charts of songs that PlayNow users have searched for. Specific searches as to one’s location will be possible.

For the mobile gamers amongst Sony Ericsson’s customer base, 250 new games have also been added to the service from companies such as EA Games, Gameloft, and THQ. This gives Play Now arena one of the largest catalogs of mobile gaming in the industry.

Residents of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland can expect the new service in May 2008, with more European markets by the end of June. Americans and Asians will have to wait until the last half of the year to enjoy the newest perks of the service.

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When YouTube deals with content owners in the US, things go swimmingly. Mostly. There are some issues to do with financing and which material is most suitable to be uploaded to the Web that the Google subsidiary must handle along with its partners. By and large, however, the arrangements the company makes with distributors stateside is altogether painless. And pretty quick, too.

Not so when it’s EU regulators that Chad and Steve (and Larry and Sergey) have to contend with. While in attendance at the media conference MidemNet held this weekend in Cannes, France, Mr Hurley said that he considered steps taken by Brussels to alter the media licensing process has “made things worse,” reports Robert Andrews of PaidContent.org. He claims YouTube is now required to spend a great deal of time managing red tape at the same time that they have startups lining up at their door seeking partnerships.

The YouTube co-founder of course hopes to see the EU’s bureaucratic framework built to deal with matters of content distribution streamlined (and blanket the continent) in order that the video host be able to reach out to both video source and viewer without having to juggle much paperwork.

In addition to YouTube’s aims to grow its supply of content deals, the company is looking to expand significantly its ad revenue sharing system. Without offering a precise target date, Hurley is eager to “get everybody involved in the process” over the course of 2008. Whether that will include users across international reaches is likely anyone’s guess at the moment. But the concept of opening YouTube’s revenue sharing program to encompass all US-based site members is not at all far fetched. Given the 11 month left to perform a complete roll out before ’09 sets upon us, it seems entirely plausible that the company can accomplish its goal – however undefined its projections remain.

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Earlier today, Mashable editor Paul Glazowski reported on Amazon’s plans to take their MP3 store international. Yet not all the music companies may be on board with the idea just yet.

Universal Music Group, the largest music seller, hasn’t yet officially closed the door on the matter. But they might if they don’t continue with DRM-free formatting, a primary selling point of the Amazon music service. According to an article on PaidContent, UMG is taking a wait-and-see approach to the situation.

They began selling DRM-free tracks in August. But the move was considered a test run, and it is due to end soon. There is no word to if they will continue with the consumer-friendly lack of digital right management. Speaking at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, France, Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of the Vivendi portion of Universal said, “We don’t want to make too many comments at this stage - we are still watching and, in time, we will make some decisions.”

So what does this mean for Amazon? If they do want to go international, but don’t have the support of the worlds largest music catalog, will they be able to succeed? Peter Kafka of Silicon Valley Insider speculates that this is part of a “public negotiation” for Universal. I agree. If Universal can back Amazon in to a corner, the online retailer may have to give UMG more favorable terms to save face. Of course, the negotiation results will be kept private, and Universal will come out looking magnaminous for having sided with consumers in the end.

Considering the proximity in timing of the two parties saying something related, it is hard not to think they are connected. In the end, Universal’s permanent support of DRM-free will likely fall into place. But it’s not difficult to think it will come down to a matter of how much retailers are willing to pay in royalties.

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There’s word traveling the tech blog space over an article published in today’s New York Times. It’s about voice recognition software, and how several engineering houses (some already acquired by big businesses) have evolved their products to enable better user interactivity.

The broad consensus among analysts is that voice recognition is soon to grow by leaps and bounds - nearly all of it due its seemingly natural cohesion with mobile phones. You know. Mobile. Phones. It all fits, right?

But I don’t see it happening. I don’t see mega-growth in the field of voice. Something (intuition) tells me that such software will not advance quickly enough nor successfully adapt to enough applications to warrant the recent forecasts of financial splendor the resurgent sector has received as of late. The software is far too complex. The gradation of vocals is expansive, not to mention the great variations in the linguistic skills of individuals. It’s almost impossibly difficult to match people with machines with respect to voice.

Instead, the services which currently (or plan to) employ voice recognition software should focus their financial assets on upgraded Web-based solutions. Rather than force customers/users to navigate through various menus and utilities through speech command, companies should work to develop customized applications which those same users can operate more quickly and easily. (The inventions of 1-800 and 1-888 should really be put to rest as soon as possible.)

Why make such investments? Simple. People want more and more access to data. A story by Dan Frommer published in Silicon Valley Insider today proves as much. Whether they are in control of a desktop terminal connected to the cloud or have a mobile device in hand (also connected to the cloud), they show an increased proclivity to use the Web to find answers and solutions. So it’s only sensible that service providers work to cater to that growing demand.

Some companies are of course doing so. Technical support is no longer only reserved for those with the ol’ speaker-and-microphone. Real-time consultations can be arranged online. Numerous retail outlets cater such services. Several telco utilities also provide customers the option to converse with representatives via Internet browsers. And the list of corporate adopters of social Web solutions is growing rather quickly.

And I say investment in such applications should increase substantially in the next few years. It only makes sense for companies which have primarily worked the voice angle in the past to make a transition that would enable their customers convenient Web access. Whether it’s to check movie times or schedule a face-to-face session with a support agent to remedy an issue with one’s cable or satellite television or Internet services, the advantages of deploying applications that are visually interactive are numerous. There would be less need for companies to maintain massive infrastructures of support staff. Social software integrated into both business-to-business and business-to-consumer (and vice versa) situations could possibly increase efficiency and end-user satisfaction greatly.

Of course, no one has ever discovered or developed a perfect science to customer service. Web technologies have their fair share of disadvantages. Security, for one, is not absolute. But modern Internet applications surely reside on a level superior to even the most preeminent echelon of voice recognition services. And for that they should receive a great deal more attention and should be administered far more widely than is currently the case.

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We’re certain that the number of Facebook users who despise the chief politico in Washington (Senor Busheister) runs well north of one million. Well north. But there’s something to be said for members of the social network to coalesce into a party 1m strong all in an effort to say, with conviction that they, all as one, hate George.

Or at the very least, dislike the guy.

It’s taken some time, but the Facebook group known as “I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who dislike George Bush” is now one of the largest collectives held together by a single message on the Web’s second-largest social network, reports OpEdNews.com today. Sure, the message could perhaps use a little pruning to give it a bit more kick, a bit more punchy pizzazz (the one and only time I will likely ever use the word here on Mashable, I assure you), but the idea that the group’s founders have presented to users is pretty much as straightforward as can be. And hey, they got the job done. One million people. Brought together. To say they detest George Bush. Fantastic.

No, really. Fantastic. The more numbers we can chalk up on the blackboard (or whiteboard, if that’s your preference) to the effect of admonishing the American embarrassment that is W. en masse, the better off we are as human beings. It shows we have the ability to recognize a mistake when we see it.

If only hindsight could have taken the place of foresight at the turn of the new millennium. If only.

I think it’s fitting to share a link with you now. It’s somewhat old. About a week has passed since it was published. But I think it corresponds quite well with everything mentioned here. Enjoy.

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Breaking news this weekend arriving from the scalawag collective at The Pirate Bay: Torrents are super popular!

More popular than ever, in fact. The Pirate Bay, in advance of a potentially messy bout with a prosecutor who plans this week to “press charges against 5 people” involved with the website, has taken the time to let the world know that all is good, well, still unsanctioned, and growing in the BitTorrent realm.

Ernesto of TorrentFreak reported Sunday morning that the rebellious website had broken the barrier to 1m torrents in total. It has also now tracking some 10 million users/peers roaming to and fro its well-renowned link farm.

A round of applause for those industrious Swedes. Cue “Beautiful Day.” It’s only fitting that we take a moment to celebrate these milestones.

Of course there’s vociferous opposition to the entire concept of The Pirate Bay. Film and music recording companies have spent month after month, season after season in repeated attempts to remove the poster child (we’d say “poster pirate,” but we fear that’d be a tad too kitschy) from its technological life support system – if not its public support system as well.

But The Pirate Bay has paid no heed to authorities. And while we can’t offer our express backing to this phenomenon loved (and hated) the world over, we certainly must admit that the site’s ability to remain resilient as an anti-establishment force through its shameless exploitation of legal loopholes is thoroughly impressive.

The Pirate Bay has become a sort of tabloid pleaser – albeit a worthwhile focus, as opposed to the faces of LA - that most all of us are absolutely transfixed by. So cheer them on we do, and will continue to in the weeks and months to come. Here’s to an ever more sensational ’08.

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Amazon MP3, one of the most critically acclaimed music download destinations on the Web to emerge in 2007, is set to begin its venture out to international reaches this year. The company announced today that it would work to expand access to its still-young (but indeed very promising) digital music storefront past the shores of the US and A, and may even solidify deals with “all four major music labels” and “over 33,000 independent(s)” to encompass worldwide licenses. (Key word being may.)

One would naturally expect Amazon to begin its digital download foray past New York and San Francisco harbors by looking first past the Atlantic to Europe, where the company has a strong retail presence for the distribution of hard goods.

Message to Steve Jobs: 2008 is the year your golden shoes are held to the fire.

Which one might argue is a rather peculiar prospect, really. It certainly isn’t the most optimal thing for Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner to disallow Apple’s iTunes Store from selling DRM-free versions of their catalogues wherever the outlet has indeed made its presence known. They have done so very openly. (All have given Amazon MP3 the go-ahead to proceed entirely DRM-free.)

Strange it is to find that anti-iTunes sentiment has been so overt. The record companies are not in the most financially dynamic of circumstances at present. They now have been witnesses to significant drops in sales for several successive quarters. So, if one were to think logically of the industry’s “dire” situation, one would assume labels big and small would opt to deliver content via any channel that might prove lucrative. Apple’s iTunes being the clearest example.

Alas, the record companies have chosen to “stick it” to Steve Jobs for gaining too powerful a negotiating hand. Only EMI, the first large recording house to transition to a DRM-free existence, has been willing to play ball as iTunes sees fit.

Whatever the choices made by the Big Four and the remaining names in the music industry, the news of Amazon MP3’s planned expansion to international dimensions is of course good simply for the sake of increasing consumer choice, and thus competition. The mostly unchallenged domination of iTunes on the Web is not an entirely terrible thing. The company has proven its ability to satisfy demand and do so relatively quickly. But if the world were to continue with the status quo for much longer, we might perhaps see Apple exhibit a kind of classic laziness sometimes borne by unchecked egotism and gigantism.

Of course, Amazon is no less a giant in the worlds of tech and retail, but one against another is a far more tolerable scenario to envision than one against none.

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Mashable threw a “lush soirée” in Beverly Hills on Thursday night hosted by Mashable founder/boss Pete Cashmore and Mixergy’s Andrew Warner. Hundreds packed into the venue, and now we have video to prove it!

Here, Veronica Belmont, usually of Mahalo Daily, interviews Pete on behalf of the SoCal tech news site TechZulu - thanks guys!

Pete has been Twittering his travels around California in Mashable’s Twitter feed and posting pics to his MyMashable profile.

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Some people like bloggers. Some people don’t. Some people really don’t.

Enter, Lee Siegel, the author of a book published January 22nd titled Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob.

I’ll be perfectly open here with you. I have not read Siegel’s diatribe. I have not placed an order for it. I have not checked the local public library for a copy. What I’m basing this unsolicited retort is only the man’s brief appearance before the camera at WSJ.com, where he talks with Jeffrey Trachtenberg about the “malicious” thuggery with which a sizable segment of the social Web’s population collectively conduct themselves in a “destructive” fashion. The author claims “aspects of the Web…devalue serious though,” and says “popular culture has given way to popularity culture.”

Siegel levels a particularly critical eye at the blogosphere, in which anonymity and isolation are barriers from behind which attacks against notable and reputable publications are made. He thinks that the power of the public on the Web should be checked more closely and disallowed to so quickly and easily tarnish the names of professional journalists and the like.

The fundamental problem to be had with Siegel’s impressions of the social Web is his interpretation of the core characteristic of online openness (the two-way-road structure we deal with today). Instead of displaying an aversion to such free-flowing discussion, has he appears to prescribe, one should embrace it and utilize it to one’s advantage.

There is one point Siegel raises which I will second, however, despite the flawed subjectivity of the arguments he makes. As I quoted above, the writer alleges that substance has given way to popularity on the Web. That is a truth that cannot be discounted. Whereas professional content creators of decades past had lived by rules concerning the upkeep of both quality and integrity, much of the blogosphere has spent a great deal of effort chasing the traffic dragon. (A terrible phrase, in hindsight.) That of course can only change with the emergence of more stringent editorial management.

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