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Ad-supported music download siteQTrax plans to launch its services by the end of this year — possibly as early as the rapidly fading summer. It's one of several services attempting to redefine digital music and aspiring to move past all these sticky legal wickets with the RIAA. Along with rival Spiral Frog, it also will have to contend with sharing sites like Lala, which subsidizes file sharing in the hopes that users will wind up purchasing music. But for QTrax users, there's a slight caveat.

Despite contracts with most major labels to allow online downloads and music play, users have to use its ad-serving peer-to-peer client. Trapping users into one interface, as Apple does with iTunes, is one of the driving forces behind music piracy. Besides, if you're already comfortable with illegal downloads, QTrax hardly sounds like a reason for you to stop.