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SpiralFrog kicks the bucket

21 March 2009 11:25 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 5 comments

In September of 2007, the advertisement supported free music download site SpiralFrog debuted with 700,000 songs available , including the entire Universal catalog. In June of 2008, the service added more music, this time from the EMI catalog, putting available tracks at over 2 million.

Today, that service has shut down, leaving all users who purchased any music with 60 days to play their DRM-crippled tunes before they disappear.

SpiralFrog was once dubbed a possible "iTunes Killer," but financial issues and an executive shakeup shook many consumer's confidence in the company.

At the time, the service was one of very few that allowed users to listen to music for free but since then much bigger companies have made similar services available, including MySpace, Last.fm from CBS and imeem. Also notably, the behemoth video sharing site YouTube shows music videos, for free, from three of the Big 4 labels.

The difference is of course, that SpiralFrog offered downloads whereas the other services offer streaming, but SpiralFrog downloads did not have iPod support so there is arguably no difference.

Permalink to this article | Topics: MP3 & Digital Audio Online music services

Qtrax brings free music to Australia, New Zealand and beyond (2 November 2009)

Warner Music regrets MySpace Music deal (15 April 2009)

Qtrax releases client version 1.0 (15 April 2009)

YouTube, Universal to launch 'Vevo' music video site (9 April 2009)

YouTube blocks music videos in Germany (2 April 2009)

EMI joins Project Playlist (26 March 2009)

iPod repairman charged with fraud (22 March 2009)

Cross your fingers - Qtrax is launching again (12 June 2008)

SpiralFrog to add songs from EMI (3 June 2008)

Music services pay high price to labels (5 April 2008)

Review of SpiralFrog's free music service (14 December 2007)

SpiralFrogs adds 1 millionth song (11 December 2007)

SpiralFrog debuts with 770,000 songs (16 September 2007)

Free legal music downloads coming via SpiralFrog (9 August 2007)

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Discuss this article!
Lothros (Junior Member) 21 March 2009 16:16
spam removed [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21 March 2009 16:59
hikaricor (Newbie) 21 March 2009 17:51
Croaks would have made the title funnier. :p [ + quote]
arcanix (AfterDawn Addict) 22 March 2009 3:31
*Quote:* the advertisement supported free music download site SpiralFrog *Quote:* Today, that service has shut down, leaving all users who purchased any music with 60 days to play their DRM-crippled tunes before they disappear. How do you purchase songs from a free site? You're left with what you paid for. [ + quote]
SamNz (Newbie) 22 March 2009 6:19
*Originally posted by hikaricor:* Croaks would have made the title funnier. :p lol simply +1 [ + quote]
atomicxl (Junior Member) 22 March 2009 19:35
*Quote:* *Quote:* Today, that service has shut down, leaving all users who purchased any music with 60 days to play their DRM-crippled tunes before they disappear. How do you purchase songs from a free site? You're left with what you paid for. Good point. I imagine this was just a typo Afterdawn made while trying to paint the company in a bad light. There is a definite slant/spin to pretty much anything they write that has anything to do with piracy or DRM. [ + quote]