B.G. Willers

Free music without all the jail time.

Kudos to the record companies (well one at least) for finally acknowledging the non-traditional means of generating revenue that the internet can provide. The website spiralfrog.com recently launched which allows users (folks just like you and me) to download as many songs as they want, listen to them however many times they want, absolutely free of charge. Instead of the music label getting it’s cash from you, they instead get a cut of Spiral Frog’s advertising revenue.

It’s not a perfect scenario though. Universal is the only record company to jump on board so far, but they are the largest label in the world, and have several great artists like Maroon 5, and Bon Jovi amongst others. Also every Spiral Frog file will be laden with restrictive DRM which restricts how you can use your music. You aren’t allowed to burn their songs to CD , they only work on some portable MP3 player and they don’t work with the iPod/Phone/Tunes/Shoes. Basically they want to ensure that you’re only getting the songs from spiralfrog.com. Which considering they’re giving you the music for free is fair enough.