Can SpiralFrog take on iTunes?
- September 17, 2007 1:35 PM |
- By Pete Nowak
by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca
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.
About the Authors
- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
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Comments (18)
Hmm free downloads, sounds good, I can tolerate the pop ups and the additional questionnaires.
But not being able to burn to a CD? or it being restricted to only two transfers?
That I don't like.
I'll just wait for someone to hack the system, thus breaking the copy-codes and leaking them into a free-running environment.
*Fingers crossed*
As Canadians in Canada, are there any legal reasons we cannot circumvent the restrictions mentioned in the article?
Geekwad: Of course there are! Canada has copyright laws of its own, as well as international agreements with other countries. You can't 'steal' from someone in the US and think that you can hide in Canada! Even if there are no relevant laws to use against you within Canada, you can just be extradited to face charges in the US.
As for the service, I think anything that provides an option for people who are looking for convenient access to music rather than simply a trendy status symbol (Ipod) is a great thing. But I don't see why anyone would download 'free' music with an expiry date - I'd rather just pay for a file that I can use however I want.
Anyone interested in the concept of legal versus illegal downloads should review Canadian copyright law. The personal use guidelines of Canadian law allow downloading of songs for personal use without the need for DRM. You pay a levee for this personal copying every time you buy blank media whether or not you choose to download MP3's. As such I would disagree with Geekwad's claim that disabling DRM's constitute "stealing"
Regards
I was excited until I realized there is no CD burning, no iPod, no Mac(PC only), and an expiration DRM. I couldn't even browse the sight with Firefox on my Powerbook. I don't think they have a chance against iTunes. I guess I'll have to keep paying iTunes (when I'm broke, in too much of a hurry, or too lazy to use BitTorrent).
Sorry Froggy
"But I don't see why anyone would download 'free' music with an expiry date - I'd rather just pay for a file that I can use however I want."
Where are you getting a file that you can use however you want? Certainly not from itunes. You can only use itunes music with apple products. Heck.. you cant even edit the music you download from itunes. "free" music that give you just about the same rights as "pay" music seems better to me. Who cares if you gotta log-in every other month. Not really a big deal to everyday internet users. But maybe I'm just crazy.
I think this is a great idea! Instead of buying songs from iTunes or other stores you can come here to preview them or you can use this site to listen to tracks away from home (when your on a computer) If you want to put it on your iPod or in my case iPhone simply do a little Google search for DRM remover or something of that nature. Tunebite and other software might be just what you need!
It also doesn't work on non-Windows computers.
Also, the website is slow as hell and is just generally very buggy.
Ruckus does prety much the exact same thing, with more or less the same limitations.
And it sucks as well.
eMusic, my friend, eMusic. 50 songs a month for 15 bucks, no drm, no limitations.
Forgot to mention the 2 major ad players are...
"The revenue from advertisers, which so far include Chevrolet and the U.S. Army, is to be split, with the labels and music publishers getting more than half of the total." I don't know if I would like my info sold to the US Military in exchange for limped free tunes. Sounds like a perfect demographic, probably young, will tolerate ad crap for limited free use due to limited income, "Your in the Army now..."
"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."
Uh, what? How does that even make any logical sense? It's SpiralFrog's choice if they want to make it incompatible with the iPod, not Apple's. (mp3s work on iPods just fine.) Why should Apple be forced to implement whatever DRM + audio codec scheme that some get-rich-quick moron dreams up?
DRM (Digital Rights Management) has been the biggest flop in the digital music world, and was cut out as a reliable way to protect music by the industry last year. No you don't need a "hack" or someone to break the copy codes. There will be programs that will be out there, and claim they can “crack the code” but those programs are not necessary. The answer is so simple (and the biggest reason why DRM was put to rest around last year), but if I post it in here this comment will probably never see the light of day. The CBC can contact me through the e-mail provided if they want to find out, but know my peers in broadcasting will very easily be able to figure it out.
You guys really need to watch that fifth estate episode on the “Denial Machine” because the same principles on how you were manipulated by the people who have the most to loose out of this apply here as well. We’ve all been ripped off by these labels in the past. Artists included! The CBC should do a follow up segment on the fifth estate to really examine the numbers here with regards to how much and artist got paid per CD and how much the label got paid considering before this SpiralFrog site, this “stealing” is more predominant in the walls of these organizations then it is in the public, and the public seems to take most the blame for their losses which I think is completely ignorant. Look at how many “leaked” dvd’s and “screeners” are out there.
This site is a last ditch effort for Universal Music to assign blame on it’s losses. It’s a completely ignorant response, and one I would be seriously looking at if I was signed on with them because of how much a failure DRM is, and how much money has been spent suing people in the US causing decline in sales, and creating worthless attack sites such as this one, rather then finding ways to actually make legally downloadable music more accessible to everyone without a credit card.
Adam: True that most iTunes music is as restricted as you say, but there are some new offerings on the site (for a 30 cent premium) that are 256k (better quality) and completely DRM free. EMI was the first to offer these, I think - the iTunes store calls them iTunes Plus or something like that.
You can only really get people to download legally if you make it more convenient for them to do so than for them to just steal it. This whole system seams like too much of a hastle than for them to download from a torrent, or even just purchase from iTunes store.
Adam: Also with iTunes, you can burn the songs you bought to CD for play on _any_ CD player, so iTunes music is not restricted to Apple products only.
Digital rights management of the type used in these music files will never become widely accepted. Someone may download a song or two, but as soon as the restrictions start to kick in, the average user is going to move on to the next site.
As to the anti trust comment at the end of this article. These files won't work on a lot of devices not just the ipod. If they make the files not work on a device how is that the devices fault. That's a bit like saying the people that make record players aren't playing nice with a record label (irony not lost) that decide to release their music on cassette...
There are already free music downloads that work with iTunes with no restrictions. It is called Bittorrent. Why would anyone bother going through all that hassle for such a limited selection?
Forget the ipod, these the track from froggy won't play on a Zune as the Zune doesn't support the obsolete "Plays for sure" DRM scheme either.
What where they thinking? Even Microsoft has abandoned this tech...
I don't know why everyone just doesn't use "pilot" it's free there's nothing to renew...just quick simple downloads.