When Free Isn’t Free - SpiralFrog Misses the Point of Digital Music by Mark Glaser, 12:10PM
First, let’s congratulate the traditional music-on-wax industry for trying something new in digital music — outside of suing its customers. The largest of the music companies, Universal Music Group, announced it would offer free music downloads through a startup called SpiralFrog supported by advertising. The other big music companies are negotiating with SpiralFrog, too. Clap, clap, clap.
But before you hurt your hands with all that applause, you might want to look at the fine print of this deal. According to the New York Times and bloggers covering the story, there are some “gotchas” with the free SpiralFrog service, due to launch in December:
+ You must listen to a 90-second audio commercial for every tune you download.
+ Your music will be in the protected WMA format, not playable on iPods.
+ You will not be able to burn a CD with the music, but can listen to songs on a limited number of computers or MP3 players.
+ You will have to return to the SpiralFrog site to view ads each month or your downloaded songs will expire.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/
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