Spiralfrog.com: A Musical Revolution?

The free music download site Spiralfrog.com recently opened its doors to the public. Spiralfrog.com is an ad-supported site which delivers digital rights management (DRM) music to members who have signed up for an account on the site. This music, delivered in WMA format, is locked-down so that it can't be transported to another computer or burned to CD. It is compatible with certain MP3 players, but is not compatible with Apple's iPod or Mac. Accounts are good for 30 days, after which time the user must renew their membership to keep their personal SpiralFrog library functional.

So far, several labels, such as Universal, EMI and BMI have been signed by SpiralFrog. However, the library of songs on SpiralFrog is still hovering around 800,000. This is hardly competition for the Apple iTunes library, which contains more than 6 million songs, many of which are priced at $.99. Still, the word "free" is a major attractor, and so it seems people have been flocking to SpiralFrog in droves.

I dropped by the website, and signed up for an account to see if it was all it was cracked up to be.

SpiralFrog required me to provide an email address and other information, such as my birth date, in order to obtain an account. I've found that sites like this tend to spam me, so provided my Yahoo address, which I use strictly as web mail. I then had to confirm my email address in order to begin downloading music. This wasn't much of an inconvenience.

SpiralFrog did not ask me for any credit card or banking information. This was a major plus. I immediately began searching for music which I have been wanting to listen to, but could not afford to buy. I tend to prefer older rock and roll, and haven't really been keeping up with the latest musical trends.

Then I had to download and install SpiralFrog's download manager, which didn't bother me. This was quick and easy to install, and didn't seem to contain any adware or spyware.