CANNES: Growing numbers of legal and free music Internet services are appearing offering vast numbers of songs, provided music lovers can stomach the accompanying advertisements.

New York-based QTRAX was the latest to launch a global free and legal ad-funded peer-to-per (P2P) music service on Sunday at MIDEM, the world’s largest music trade event.

And brands including Ame-rican toy giant Hasbro are starting to team up with the music world to put music into sometimes unexpected places, including kid’s toothbrushes.

The kids “Tooth Tunes” toothbrush, which plays tracks by chart-topping artists, has been a resounding success in the USA and will shortly be launched in Europe and Asia.

QTRAX joins the swelling ranks of services offering an alternative to the huge number of mostly young people who illegally download millions of music tracks every year.

“We will provide a vastly better service than unauthorised sites with superior technology, alluring and vast content, and free music that won’t get you arrested,” QTRAX president and CEO Allan Klepfisz said.

The arrival of QTRAX and rival services has been welcomed by the world’s ailing recording industry, which is struggling to recover from the effects of declining CD sales and rampant illegal music downloads.

Record companies see the emerging ad-funded online music services as way of wooing back digitally-savvy consumers aged between 13 and 30, which will in turn satisfy their artists and the music rights holders.

QTRAX and the other legal, free P2P music services have the backing of the recording industry for the first time.

They’re able to offer legal music for free thanks to a slew of licensing agreements with the major labels as well as the publishers and even some leading independent labels.

Added to that, the new music download services say they can supply music and videos free of the viruses that often plague illegal download sites like LimeWire and provide better audio quality.

“We believe we have the killer application,” co-founder of Rebel Digital and QTRAX consultant, Laurence Ford, said.

—AFP