Spiral Frog

I just heard about this. When it comes out, the setup is supposed to be similar to iTunes, but rather than paying for each song directly, the user is required to sit through a showing of paid advertising. There is yet no information about the download quality or required time to view the ads.

Anyone willing to stare at banners for a free, legal song?

- JP

I remember reading about this at geek.com back around October. I'm still waiting for this to get off the ground; I checked the site yesterday, and the la-*test*-('") news was that they'd gotten permission from BMI for over 6.5 million songs and videos to be distributed.

Stare at a banner for a free download? I'll get up and make a sandwich, just like for broadcast television. I know that "you get what you pay for" as a rule, but I'll gladly give it a shot.

Heck, I'd almost stare at Kelly for a few minutes for a free download...

Ah, I'm a few months late on the news as per usual. If it's possible to just let the banners do their thing, then I'll definitely check it out. I'm a bit concerned that the site might require regular clicking to move through a series of banners or the like that forces a lengthy viewing period.

- JP

Little update here.

La-*test*-('") check shows that the site will only work for Canadians!

"You were diverted to this page because we detected that you are not connecting to us from Canada. Unfortunately, at this time, we are only able to preview our service to residents of Canada."

Boo. Hiss.

Heads up!

Spiralfrog is now up and running! I will be looking into this to see how it works and what's involved.

SpiralFrog website
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spir...dlines-business

The catch? "Consumers have to wait 90 seconds for each track to download, and they must answer questions each month about their buying habits.

In addition, the songs can't be played on iPods or burned onto CDs as they can with 99-cent downloads from the dominant online music store, Apple Inc.'s iTunes."

I'm quite sure there are legal ways around this, just like recording streams from Pandora, or CBC News feeds, or the BBC's Radio 1...