Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Spiralfrog, the ad-based music download service, has finally opened its doors for business. The music industry has been trying different ways to increase revenues, especially online.

Spiralfrog boasts over 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos available at launch. Although 800,000 sounds impressive, it has a long way to go to catch up to iTunes and even Emusic.

SpiralFrog is able to offer songs for free by requiring the user to view ads in order to download the music, and has a revenue-sharing deal with the labels. The music catalog right now revolves around Universal Music Group. EMI also is offering songs with SpiralFrog, as are a number of independent artists and music labels. Big name artists like Gwen Stefani and Fergie are available for download so that is a good sign.

I tried out the service to see how it performs. Overall, I think it works fairly well. Spiralfrog does make you download their own “download” software, which is kind of annoying but I guess pretty standard. You need to use Windows Media Player 10 or higher. Mac users need not apply.

The service requires the user to log in and view ads at least once every 30 days. On the front page, there is a counter that tells you how many days you have left before you have to “renew” for free. You also cannot burn the songs to CD or transfer it to an iPod.

Sprialfrog has two things not working in its favor right now: 1) a limited catalog of songs and 2) no iPod compatibility. New songs apparently are right around the corner but the iPod issue might be a deal breaker for the college crowd.