Yes you heard it right, you can now download over 35 million songs (compared to iTunes’ 6 million) for free and LEGALLY! Qtrax - a new startup has collaborated with 4 major record companies (EMI, SonyBMG, Universal and Warner) to allow users to download song’s from their catalogues.  There is one hitch though - you can only play your downloads via their in-house software - so you will not be able to transfer them to your iPod or burn them to CD.

You maybe thinking how on earth do the record companies and artists see any return on allowing their music to be downloaded for free?  Well, Qtrax have created a platform where adverts are shown whilst the user plays their downloaded material via the Qtrax player.  The ads will be targeted towards the user and then the information and revenue relayed back to the record company.

The service is only available on Windows at present, so Mac users are left out for now.  The Qtrax website is currently unavailable completely (27.01.08) as widespread media interest has no doubt attracted overwhelming visitors.