SpiralFrog Offers Free Music Downloads

Miss Kazaa? Don't trust Torrents? You and everyone else not interested in paying thousands of dollars for an expensive CD collection might finally have found something worth looking into: a free music download website that makes its profit from someone other than you.

The idea of SpiralFrog.com is fairly simple: blast the consumer with advertisements, soak up advertisers for the necessary resources to run the site, and in turn offer the music itself for no charge. Record labels actually receive about half of all advertising dollars reaped from the site.

This sounds too good to be true...

The idea makes sense. SpiralFrog arranges for record companies to receive a cut of the site's advertising revenue, and given the imaginable popularity of a site boasting "free music downloads!", the interest of advertisers has been understandably high.

Most of all, it offers an alternative to those sites and protocols that have so often landed users in hot water, be it through a nasty case of malware or even prosecution for copyright infringement. Joe Mohen, chairman and founder of NYC-based SpiralFrog Inc., believes his site "will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites...With SpiralFrog you know what you're getting...there's no threat of viruses, adware or spyware." (Source: news.xinhuanet.com)

The only threat to this utopian wonderland may come from the sensibility of its users. Posting SpiralFrog downloaded songs illegally could wreck the site before it gets a chance to take off.

Thankfully, the company seems prepared. Reports conflict on whether or not the songs, which are all in WMA format, can or cannot be burned to either a CD or iPod. CNET says one or two devices, Xinhuanet says none. Although the latter would drastically limit the usefulness of the 800,000 song library, SpiralFrog clearly believes enough of us use computers as jukeboxes to make the venture worthwhile. (Source: news.com)

Other stipulations require that users register to the site and login at least once a month. Otherwise, content locks up and won't play. In addition, those downloading a song will be requested to fill out a form on their music buying habits.

In some ways, the SpiralFrog project seems more interested in using us in a giant advertising experiment than anything else. However, despite its limits no one can underestimate the value of free music.