09/17/2007, 9:45am, EDT
Monday, September 17thSpiralFrog intros free, ad-based music service
SpiralFrog this morning kicked off the launch of its self-titled online music service, hoping to try a relatively new business model. Rather than require users to purchase music or pay subscription fees, the service is completely free; the costs of media are supported by embedded ads, according to the company. This includes both songs as well as music videos, either of which use the protected version of the Windows Media Audio and Video formats respectively to help SpiralFrog track popularity rather than to deter theft. The store currently holds 800,000 songs and 3,500 music videos from major and independent labels and frequently includes biographies and reviews for artists similar to for-pay stores.
The service currently requires Windows XP or Vista and is billed primarily as an alternative to piracy, as it lets users try music freely without requiring an up-front price or proprietary software to load and play music. Many users will frequently visit web or software portals to sample music but will frequently visit another to pirate or buy it, according to company chairman Joe Mohen. SpiralFrog's zero-cost model is said to resolve the dilemma by reproducing the consistently quick download rates and clean files of traditional stores with the freedom to download tracks on impulse.
"Our answer to this seemingly impossible equation is to allow our audience to download songs and video at no cost — other than their time and attention," Mohen said.
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Are these people on drugs or what? 75% plus of the market use iPods not Windows media player. People aren't looking for DRM protected crap that you can't burn a CD of or play only on brown Zune crap players.
This service like all the other subscription based services before them and will fail within a year. People hate two things the most with this service, commercial advertising which they are forced to view, and DRM which forces you to only use Windows and win-blows compatible players which 75% plus of the market DON'T USE. And on top of that you can't even burn an audio CD either. iTunes is still number one and I already see spiral frog spiraling down to non-existence because they don't have what the people want.