shaniatfan
08-30-2006, 1:23am
MUSIC fans will be able to legally download songs free for the first time from a major provider - after the world's biggest record company announced its tracks are to be made available on a website funded by advertising.
Universal Music, home to acts such as U2 , the Scissor Sisters, Texas, Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain, has given its backing to an online-start up called SpiralFrog. The New York-based firm plans to offer songs for free download and pay the record label through money raised from advertising. The tie-up with Universal adds a potential 300,000 tracks to its library.
The launch of SpiralFrog is a radical departure from existing legal music sites, which make fans pay per download. Apple's iTunes, which controls 80 per cent of the legal download market, charges 79p a song.
While Universal sells its artists' music via iTunes, the tie-up with SpiralFrog is a major challenge to the dominance of the iPod as songs downloaded via SpiralFrog will be in the WMA digital format, which is incompatible with iPod players.
SpiralFrog says users downloading free songs on its service will not be able to swap them with other net surfers because of a technology called digital rights management. Devised by Microsoft, the system effectively ties music tracks to the machine they are downloaded to and makes them unplayable on other computers. SpiralFrog users will also not be able to burn their downloads to CD.
SpiralFrog is due to launch in December, but initially the service will be available only in North America. The company plans to launch in Europe in the first quarter of 2007.
Universal and other major record labels are constantly looking for ways to make money from a digital download market still dominated by illegal file-sharing networks.
A report released last month by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) revealed there were still 40 illegal downloads for every legal one. The voracious appetite for downloads was further illustrated by a prediction from the IFPI that 60 million MP3 players will be sold globally this year.
Robin Kent, SpiralFrog's chief executive, said the company was talking to other labels, including EMI, Sony-BMG and Warner, about joining its service.
He said: "Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling."
However, a source at Universal Music told The Scotsman that the US venture was "an experiment" to see if free legal downloads worked.
"We would want to see this successfully trialled in the US before it launched in Europe," the insider added.
Napster, the file-sharing service that pioneered the boom in illegal song swapping before turning itself into a legal company, is also trialling the concept of adverts for music. A new version of Napster allows consumers to listen to up to five tracks free while they view advertising.
Quentin Reade, of Web User magazine, said: "I think SpiralFrog will prove successful among young people who are time-rich but money-poor.
"However, we have yet to see what limitations might be imposed on the service and I suspect users may well combine it with illegal file-swapping services."
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1278292006
Universal Music, home to acts such as U2 , the Scissor Sisters, Texas, Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain, has given its backing to an online-start up called SpiralFrog. The New York-based firm plans to offer songs for free download and pay the record label through money raised from advertising. The tie-up with Universal adds a potential 300,000 tracks to its library.
The launch of SpiralFrog is a radical departure from existing legal music sites, which make fans pay per download. Apple's iTunes, which controls 80 per cent of the legal download market, charges 79p a song.
While Universal sells its artists' music via iTunes, the tie-up with SpiralFrog is a major challenge to the dominance of the iPod as songs downloaded via SpiralFrog will be in the WMA digital format, which is incompatible with iPod players.
SpiralFrog says users downloading free songs on its service will not be able to swap them with other net surfers because of a technology called digital rights management. Devised by Microsoft, the system effectively ties music tracks to the machine they are downloaded to and makes them unplayable on other computers. SpiralFrog users will also not be able to burn their downloads to CD.
SpiralFrog is due to launch in December, but initially the service will be available only in North America. The company plans to launch in Europe in the first quarter of 2007.
Universal and other major record labels are constantly looking for ways to make money from a digital download market still dominated by illegal file-sharing networks.
A report released last month by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) revealed there were still 40 illegal downloads for every legal one. The voracious appetite for downloads was further illustrated by a prediction from the IFPI that 60 million MP3 players will be sold globally this year.
Robin Kent, SpiralFrog's chief executive, said the company was talking to other labels, including EMI, Sony-BMG and Warner, about joining its service.
He said: "Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling."
However, a source at Universal Music told The Scotsman that the US venture was "an experiment" to see if free legal downloads worked.
"We would want to see this successfully trialled in the US before it launched in Europe," the insider added.
Napster, the file-sharing service that pioneered the boom in illegal song swapping before turning itself into a legal company, is also trialling the concept of adverts for music. A new version of Napster allows consumers to listen to up to five tracks free while they view advertising.
Quentin Reade, of Web User magazine, said: "I think SpiralFrog will prove successful among young people who are time-rich but money-poor.
"However, we have yet to see what limitations might be imposed on the service and I suspect users may well combine it with illegal file-swapping services."
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1278292006