Rich Fiscus
3 Jun 2008 1:23
SpiralFrog, a service offering free music downloads in the US and Canada, has announced a licensing deal with EMI to offer songs from that label for download. EMI is the second of the four major labels to offer content through the ad-supported service, which already features music from Universal Music Group. SpiralFrog plans to add more than 1 million EMI tracks over the next few weeks.
"You're going to see that users on our site are going to see a lot more content, so there's going to be far fewer searches where they won't find music they're looking for," said Joe Mohen, SpiralFrog's chairman and founder.
According to Nielsen SoundScan Universal Music and EMI accounted for nearly 40% of US album sales so far in 2008 (through May 25). The other two major labels, Sony BMG and Warner Music made up another 46%, while albums from independent labels comprised just over 14%. SpiralFrog already has deals in place with a number of independents, and according to Mohen there are plans to add the remaining two majors by year's end.
Mohen also indicated that the company is a year away from being profitable.
SpiralFrog's music downloads use Microsoft DRM, which requires either Windows Media Player or one of a few compatible portable music players. The list of compatible players doesn't include either the Apple iPod or Microsoft Zune.