Warning: This entry may be more aptly named “How not to launch a Beta”.

Ever since the whiney drummer from Metallica first started bitching about Napster and other P2P downloading services, I’ve been hard-pressed to find a reliable source for free music. I’ve Limewire’d, Bearshare’d, and Ares’d; all while worrying that the federal agents might come a-knockin’ on my door.

So when I got the news of a free, reliable and legal music downloading service hitting the market, I was pretty stoked.

Qtrax, promised to be the be-all and end-all for music downloaders, giving us free access to the 25 million songs from all four major labels. We’d be able install a nifty piece of software, and have an endless database of music at our fingertips. The free downloads, that could be easily uploaded to our MP3 player of choice, would be supported from ads spackled throughout the interface.

“What’s a few ads here and there? See ya later, iTunes,” I thought. “I’m gonna download every single song I can get my hands on and make me a Party Playlist.” Qtrax sounded absolutely invincible….

and then I actually tried it.

Early this morning, I rushed to my work desk to download the Beta software and start rocking out. From the get-go, I was excited to see my favorite artist of all time, Bob Marley, featured right on the homepage. I settled in and prepared for a nice, Irie morning at my desk.

And that’s where the Irie ends.

Remember how Qtrax said that it would offer music from all four of the major labels? Well…they must have forgotten to ask the labels first. In fact, the companies have even denied having an agreement with the site.

That’s right. There is NO MUSIC currently on Qtrax. Just a bunch of artists, song titles and album covers. You can click the download buttons, but they just prompt a pop-up that reads “Downloads coming soon”.

I spent five, extraordinary painful minutes clicking around the site, trying to get my hands on any piece of free music that I could. John Mayer. Bob Seger. Heck, I would have even gotten “down” to a little Shaquira. But, right now, Qtrax is just one giant tease.

Now I recognize that not every Beta launch is going to be perfect. But come on. No music on a music download site? What did the Qtrax team expect me to do on the site? Click on the ads?! And where did they get off telling people that there were agreements forged with the record labels?

I’m not even going to waste my time discussing the software’s design or functionality (although I could say a mouthful about that too). But I’m just absolutely confounded that a site would launch with no content. It’s kind of like promoting and launching a blog without any words on it. Or a YouTube without any videos. It’s a terrible experience for early adopters, and is going to be tough to rebound from.

Betas are generally a perfect way to get the WOM ball rolling. When done right, they can engage the users in the development process, and get them buzzing early on in the process. But, if they’re launched haphazardly, they can cause some real damage to the brand.

So, good luck, Qtrax! Call me when I can get back to making that Party Playlist.

Here’s a screen shot of the interface. As you’ll see, it was broken at the time I captured the image.

The blogosphere was all abuzz this week with another case Twitter crashing. Apparently, the microblogging site wasn’t able to handle the flood of traffic they were receiving from Steve Jobs’ speech at this year’s Mac World.

And this wasn’t the first time Twitter has failed, and I doubt it will be the last. But this catastrophe serves as another opening for Twitter clones to gain some headway on the market leader.

One microblogging/social networking site that’s rapidly picking up some steam is Pownce. Started by Digg founder, Kevin Rose, and several other e-famous entrepreneurs, the site has been described as “Twitter on steroids”.

Like other microblogging sites, Pownce lets its members share their status and links with their network of friends.

Unlike Twitter, however, the site also offers the ability to share files by simply dragging items from their desktop. This is an invaluable resource for those of us who are accustomed to filling up our contacts’ email boxes with videos of a delusional Tom Cruise.

Users can also download a desktop application that lets them update and view their friends’ status without having to open up their browser. Now that’s service.

But with any new piece of technology, there’ll always be room for improvement, so here’s what I’m thinking so far. One of the most attractive aspects of Twitter is its tie-in with Facebook. Updating status on one of the two sites automatically pings both, offering a nice touch for us too lazy to constantly monitor all of our networks.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, Pownce does not offer this service. We’re seeing this integration of social networks happen more and more on the web each day, so if Pownce expects to keep up, this feature is a must.

The site is currently still in it’s Beta form, but don’t worry - it opens up to the public on January 22 with some additional features, including a new upcoming events page, improved desktop application and mobile events section.

But if you can’t wait any longer to try it out, you can visit Mashable for a free invite. Once you’ve got it all installed, add me as a friend (mghwom) and see what I’m doing at all times (don’t be scared).

Final review of Pownce Beta: awesome.

As most of you know, the Iowa caucus is tonight and, rather than suffering through the unbearable blabber of the cable news network anchors, I’ll be watching the results live on Google Maps.

Someone has created a Google Maps/caucus results mash-up, which lets users see real-time results from the state’s individual districts. It also has news and videos being pulled in from a number of sources around the web.

You can go here to check it out.