SpiralFrog, free music with a catch
In a refreshing change, a web start-up – SpiralFrog.com – has actually come out of beta testing and gone into full-fledged operation. SpiralFrog is yet another iTunes challenger, of which there seems to be a new one every week, and its special twist is that it is offering legal music downloads for free. Wait a minute… did they say legal music downloads for free? What’s the catch? Of course, there’s a catch. A number of them actually. The site is taking a page out of Google’s playbook by offering up a free service to consumers in exchange for advertising dollars. So far, SpiralFrog – which is available in Canada and the United States – says it has 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos available for download. Most of the content comes from Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest label and the only major to sign up with SpiralFrog. Users can download music and videos for free from SpiralFrog’s website – all they have to do is tolerate a few ads on the site. So far so good.
But as with just about any legal downloadable music, there are copy protections and restrictions. SpiralFrog songs can’t be burned to a CD and can only be copied to two portable music players. Furthermore, users must renew their subscriptions to the site every month by answering some questions about themselves, which is sold in aggregate to advertisers. If the user doesn’t renew their subscription, all their downloaded content stops working after 60 days. That still may not be enough to dissuage users, but SpiralFrog’s biggest issue just might — songs downloaded from the site won’t play on an iPod. Not being able to play your songs on more than 80 per cent of the music players our there has got to be a big strike against you. So here’s the ironic question: is it possible for someone to create an iTunes killer if its songs don’t work on iPods? SpiralFrog may just be giving more ammunition to antitrust regulators to go after Apple.
Peter Nowak, CBCNews
Comments(24)
But then again – who downloads legal music? Muhahaa…
Good news tho
.
A lot of people.
I can’t wait to see the next news headline: “14 year old boy from some eastern European country cracks SpiralFrog copy protection, releases solution online”
“Thanks for your interest in our new Web site. Currently we have higher than expected demand and we are working to expand our capacity. Please try us again!”
Guess they’re improving the server to respond this “unexpected” demand.
What’s next – leasing a car full of sponsordecals with only 3 wheels, 2 gallons of gas and a sealed gascap… “if we may sell your phonenumber and adress to some fishy companies once a month we will borrow you the 4th wheel and you will get 2 gallons a month – for free!!” :/
Nice try, but try a bit harder please.
Anyway to trick them to think I’m from the US?
Proxy?
why lie? ipods enjoy 60% market share even in the brain-damaged us
Why would you even consider downloading crappy WMA’s?
Not to mention that you would have to install WMP11… so what if it has a nice interface, at least MS sould have fixed its interface bugs!
The compression format is fucked because they don’t apply any lowpass filters like MP3, Lame or AAC encoders do… the sound will have a slight ringing on certain sound levels like voices.
Screw that! I have BitTorrent, DC and RapidShare!
Hmm… I wonder. Can you transcode it to another format (aka convert it)? At that point does all that 60 day/2 copy crap still function?
The “I” in Ipod stands for idiot. Why pay for an overpriced mp3 player when there are many cheaper mp3 players out there that do the exact same thing?
“Hmm… I wonder. Can you transcode it to another format (aka convert it)? At that point does all that 60 day/2 copy crap still function?”
No. that’s just iTunes.
If it’s MS DRM, FairUse4WM or something like that should work.
Just visit doom9 forums
…or use a cable to connect your hardware output with your input (small quality loss, but works for DRM scheme).
Thanks for your interest in our new Web site. Currently we have higher than expected demand and we are working to expand our capacity. Please try us again!
Copyright © 2007 SpiralFrog, Inc.
wtf?
EDIT nr3 (an edit button would be nice): the above should be “works for *every* DRM scheme).
How to enter if you’re not from USA or Canada : *for FireFox*
Install this extension : https://addons.mozilla.org/ro/firefox/addon/573
Enter the page, so it sets the cookies, the open Tools > Cookie Editor and find the SpiralFrog cookie that says _Country or something like that, and edit your country with CANADA, as I didn’t figured what they put for USA.
By realblade
All somebody has to do if they have Napster, Yahoo Music, or this SpiralFrog thing is to download FairUse4WM and take the DRM off the tracks.
That way, you can download music legally off this Spiralfrog thing and keep it forever, free to use on whatever you want.
@10, yes… any WM content can be unDRMed!
Yes you can either use Spiral Frog or bitorrent………..hmmmmm its so hard to decide please help me. ROFL
Why do they even bother?
I fail to understand how Sprialfrog’s service opens up Apple to antitrust litigation. Apple sells a product that plays both the universal MP3 standard and its own AAC. Should they be forced to support every format out there? No. Especially when it would be Apple that would have to pay Microsoft licensing fees to decode Microsoft DRM.
Let me give you an analogy. Let’s say I make a tire that fits on 25″ single-bolt race rims. Too bad, Ford doesn’t make any car that can take those tires. However Ford is a massive car company. Should Ford be sued for anti-trust litigation because I purposely made a niche product? No.
” Should they be forced to support every format out there? No. Especially when it would be Apple that would have to pay Microsoft licensing fees to decode Microsoft DRM.”
Do some research.
Apple is still the nr.1 DRM “lets lock everything in our own hardware and software” abuser.
Only nannas and teenyboppers buy ipods…
There is an ad funded model where you get free music legally from the UK called http://www.we7.com. Its backed by Peter Gabriel and is completely DRM free. The tracks work on all formats including the ipod. The catch? you listen to a 10 second audio ad at the beginning of the track, but to be honest it doesnt bother at all. There is no forced return to the site and no country restrictions. Also, the site is easy to use and artist friendly. I think its less about knocking Itunes off the perch, but giving artists a supplementary revenue stream. We get free music but artists still get paid with this model. I think Spiral has a long way to go, but since visiting We7 Iv totally gone off stealing music! check it out, we7.com
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