If you haven’t heard the news yet (reported in awed tones here by the BBC) you’ll soon be able to download music completely legally, absolutely free.
Well, I guess you can toll the bells for online copyright infringement – and you can pretty much go ahead with that obituary for iTunes while you’re at it.
Universal have signed up to a bold new service called Spiral Frog and apparently, EMI and Warner Music are not far behind in their in talks with the new site which will allow you to download music (and ‘other digital content’) for free without fear of any of the attendant nasties and terrible crushing guilt which theoretically plague illegal music sites.
Yeah, right – what’s the catch?
Well, there isn’t one. That is, there isn’t JUST one.
First of all, it’s in WMA format, which rules out the iPod (a portable device that has, let’s not forget, 84% of the portable player market in the UK). This is a format that locks you into a particular proprietary software player that you may well have issues with.
It’s only going to be available in the USA and Canada at first.
It hasn’t actually launched – they’re taking email addresses for a beta launch. Looks like December at this point.
This isn’t news, really, is it? It’s a press release.
It’s not a particularly new thing – just a nice piece of rebranding of an older, rather dire music retail proposition.
You’re going to have to watch commercials every time you download a track. Want an album? Watch an ad, download a track. Watch another ad, download another track… (sigh)
Oh, and Digital Rights Management up the wazoo. PlaysforSure-protected WMA files. One computer, up to a maximum of two portable devices.
I remember when I could buy a record and turn it into a frisbee, give it to a friend, or boil it in water until it warped into an attractive pot plant holder. If I’m going to pay for music (even – perhaps especially – with my advertorial attention), then I want to do what I damn well like with it when I get it home.
Oh, and if you want your music to still actually make noise when you press the play button, you’re going to have to make sure you log into the Spiral Frog website often enough to watch the latest commercials.
I’ll repeat that so that it sinks in: you must log in to the Spiral Frog service at least once per month, and see their ads, or your files will stop playing.
And it stops working after 6 months.
So… that would be “free” online music downloads to rival iTunes.
Really, your majesty? Garments of finest magical silk, you say…
For more indepth coverage of the Spiral Frog nonsense, Techcrunch and Medialoper have been very good. As is, for the stronger of stomach, this.
hi Dubber, really interested in the idea – do you reckon these folks ain’t keen to go the whole hog and give away full size files? I mean, forget about the DRM, advertising etc, if you can just play it once through a decent system into your PC (Mac, whatever…) you get around all that from then on right?
BUT will it be a full size, 44.1 CD quality file – that’s the killer app for me: CD (or better!) quality downloads.
forget iPod – gimme WAVE files at a nice fat rate please.
I think I hate iPods – aside from the nice menus. you? just a glorified walkman really.
Richard
Hi Andrew,
you are making the assumption that most people want albums, and want to keep them. I don’t think that holds true now, if it ever has.
The other thing I’d question is the iPod dominance. Based on Apple’s own figures earlier this year, the UK share is 40% and the only country outside the US with a dominat share is Australia with 58%. In most of the world the iPod is around the 20-40% figure
Run the tracks through Audio Hijack and – bingo – unrestricted MP3s.
If it ever gets off the ground, of course……
I suspect something like this is on its way even if this isn’t the product that delivers it. The iTunes fixed price-per-song model means I can still get DRM-free, high quality back catalogue CDs cheaper from my local HMV store than I can from iTunes so the iTunes business proposition is not unassailable.
Just as cable companies give away “free” voice calls and charge for movie channels, online downloads are moving from music to movies so offering “free” advert-funded music doesn’t seem unreasonable. After all, free advert-funded access is the basis on which most of the internet is run already – when did you last pay to visit a website?
Andrew (C)
Posted this elsewhere:
I just put the concept of having to watch an ad once a month to my daughter and her friends and the response was extremely positive. The concept provided no barrier. The mindset that we have of acquiring music to keep is totally alien to a 12-15 year old, its all about the 45 attitude, the disposability of the music, as it has been to generations before. With that in mind, this spiralfrog concept, while its not in any way perfect, is very smart…
We need to get over the concept that music is all about the album, to most people its about the song. 30 million people bought Thriller for five songs, not because it was Thriller. Take away the other 5 songs and they still want those 5 songs. I admit, I often (but not always) still think of albums and if I want Live at The Village Vanguard I’ll buy the package. But if a kid wants 50 Cent or Avril, they want the song..and a month is plently for most of the target audience. That coupled with the fact that a free, easily accesible service may well dramtically increase artist exposure.
And logging in once a month…my daughter goes on to Gamespot five times a day…
Interesting.
Michael Locker MD
I was a little ashamed at how badly the BBC got sucked in by the PR here, and it’s happening too often. The “Today” show on Radio 4 generally rips British politicians to threads, but seem happy to broadcast corporate puff pieces when it comes to business news. When they got the Spiral Frog spokesperson on the air, they didn’t question very hard at all, just let him stick to his speaking points. Mind you, given the Radio 4 demographic, maybe most listeners didn’t care about music downloads.