What is SpiralFrog?

SpiralFrog is the latest industry-backed platform through which users can download and listen to music from the catalogs of a number of high-profile music publishers. The idea behind SpiralFrog is simple: log into the site, create a free account, and start downloading free music. No money will leave your pocket. So far so good.

At launch the service was offering more than 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos for download. Universal and EMI have both licensed some of their catalog for download on the site, and the RIAA likes the idea.

Free music downloads have been offered by a number of services - of which Ares and Limewire are currently the most popular - for a few years now, and while this has proved extremely attractive to users it is not so highly regarded amongst publishers who see the sharing of music files as going against the copyrights that they hold on the music. What separates SpiralFrog from these ‘unofficial’ platforms is that it is fully backed by those holding the copyright to the music it offers.

A Quick Comparison

Before we go any further, here’s a pithy table of SpiralFrog’s pros and cons. There’s more detail on each below.

Pros

• Download music with payig a penny
• Download music without inciting the wrath of the RIAA
• Supported by large music publishers
• It’s new and therefore cool

Cons

• Site is filled with ads, and you’re going to have to endure them when you play the downloaded music, too
• You have to return to the site each and every month to keep the downloads playable
• Does not work on iPods, iPhones, Macs, and some other gadgets
• Does not work on iPods, iPhones, Macs, and some other gadgets (we said that one twice because it really is a deal-breaker)
• Downloading is very painful
• Buggy interface
• Currently only a limited selection of music

How does it work?

The natural question is why have the music industry’s biggest players had a change of heart? Why have they decided to give their music away to the yearning punter?

Well, in truth, there has been no change of heart. SpiralFrog is very much a commercial entity, and it can only be presumed that the publishers are paid the rates they demand in order that it earn the privilege of offering copyrighted wares. SpiralFrog receives revenue from extensive advertising both on the site and in the music downloaded by the user, and this is where the term ‘free’ comes into dispute…

The word ‘free’ is a funny one: in the context of SpiralFrog it means free in the ‘money’ sense but not in the ‘you do nothing but get something in return anyway’ sense. You support the site by looking at (and listening to) the advertising it presents to you. Not happy with listening to insurance commercials in the middle of your favorite Eminiem track? You won’t be using SpiralFrog, then. Ultimately you are paying the bills of internet and music executives across the world.

To stop enterprising users simply downloading a job-lot of tracks then riding off into the proverbial sunset, SpiralFrog has injected Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) into the media that it provides. If the subscriber doesn’t return to its site for a month, the DRM will kick in and the music will become unplayable.

Technology

SpiralFrog uses a web-based interface which is, alas, tediously slow. One report noted that accessing the interface was like going back to the bad-old-days of dial-up; needless to say real dial-up users who savor their sanity should steer well clear. The tracks are encoded at a quality of 128kbps which is fine through poor-quality speakers, but for those of us with more expensive sound equipment (and perhaps a slightly more discerning ear), it can sound a little below par.

The interface is very buggy is plagued by a cacophony of errors, timeouts and disconnections. Tracks are noted as downloaded when in fact they are not. If you want to download a 15-track album then you’d better have some time on your hands: going to have to download each track separately.

The user experience is frustrating, to say the least.

Limitations?

The DRM restrictions limiting effective playback of tracks only to those users who log in every month will be seen as a critical limitation by some: if you fail to login for a month or so, all your tracks will be unplayable, and if you want to get them back you’ll have to go through the entire, painful, process once again. Further DRM restrictions prevent the use of SpiralFrog content on more than two media players or phones at one time.

Arguably the biggest bugbear in SpiralFrog’s DRM arsenal is the limitation which prevents users playing downloaded tracks on Apple hardware. Do you own a Mac? An iPod? An iPhone? Well you can’t use SpiralFrog content on them.

Conclusions

The software is in its early stages at the moment, but as far as I am concerned it is unusable. This is unfortunate because concept is great and it’s truly fantastic that the music industry (or parts of it at least) are catching on to the fact that free downloads can be a worthwhile business model. Still it is another option and who knows where it will end up?