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SpiralFrog's "free" music download service goes live
SpiralFrog, the badly named, ad-supported music and video download portal has gone live today after months of beta testing, or so we're told. The site allows users to legally and freely download media from a catalogue of over 800,000 songs and 3,500 videos (most provided by Apple ship-jumper Universal Music Group, as mentioned way back in August 2006), and requires only that users register on the site and log in once a month (otherwise the DRM'd files go belly up). It's not all lollipops and rainbows, however, as just mentioned, the files are full of nasty, fun-murdering DRM which prevents your new tunes from being burned onto a CD. In other gloomy news, SpiralFrog's content won't work on your Mac or your iPod, and can only be placed on two media players or phones at a time. "We believe it will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites," said company chairman Joe Mohen, adding, "With SpiralFrog you know what you're getting." Yes Joe, and we know what we're not getting, too.
Universal Music Group going to free downloads with SpiralFrog
Alright everybody, witness the latest trend to sweep the out of touch music industry: free ad-supported music downloads. And one company planning to offer such a gig, SpiralFrog, has found itself a pretty big taker in the Universal Music Group, whose catalogue of artists (some of which include Eminem, U2, Kanye, Bon Jovi, etc.) will be online and freely downloadable to those willing to sit through "non-intrusive, contextually-relevant, targeted advertising," according to SpiralFrog. It's a step in the right direction, but what do you think the odds are that Universal is still going to require DRM even on free downloads? Now, DRM-free costless downloads with ads, that's fine, but when is someone just going to offer what we really want: straight up DRM-free media downloads? We're willing to freaking pay for it, you know? And we're sure a lot of other people out there are willing to, as well.[Via Reuters, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
