Ever dreamed of downloading free, yet legal music from popular artists? Spiralfrog.com is an ad-supported, free music and video downloading website and they have recently signed a new licensing deal with EMI music. Last year, Spiralfrog.com signed a similar deal with Universal Music group. This latest licensing deal with EMI gives Spiralfrog.com users the access to content from two out of four major recording companies.
Spiralfrog.com users from Canada and U.S can download music and videos for free. The cover their bandwidth bills and pay rights holders through the revenue generated with online advertisements shown on their site. However they have one small catch – music downloaded from their website contains DRM that makes it playable only on Windows based computers (i.e tracks downloaded from their website can’t be played back on iPod or other portable music devices).
Spiralfrog.com already has 1.1 millions tracks and over 4,000 music videos. The number will significantly rise once EMI’s content gets included in their catalogue. The company is currently pursuing other labels to sign licensing deals and they are hopeful about getting content other major labels.
It feels good to download tracks for free, but also pay the rights holder through a portion of ad revenue. No guilt involved! As of now, Spiralfrog.com is open to users from U.S and Canada only
Source: AP

wrote, on June 5th, 2008
Excellent concept - free music in return for ad views. It remains to be seen how long the file format will take to be cracked so people can play these tracks on their ipods, etc…
wrote, on June 5th, 2008
SEO Man: Yeah, we’ve seen DRMs come and get cracked. It’s just a matter of time. In any case, I don’t think the service will stay up if someone cracks open the DRM.
wrote, on June 5th, 2008
It’s not for me… I love the lossless audio formats only, another use for preview target only.
wrote, on June 6th, 2008
Kudos to Spiralfrog! May they have a lot of success!
wrote, on June 7th, 2008
It is sad that it is available only in the USA and Canada. It is however good that it does away with guilt!
wrote, on June 7th, 2008
I love “free” by why only USA and Canada, what about the rest of us (:
wrote, on June 14th, 2008
This is very similar to Ruckus… But Ruckus is only available if you have a college email address i.e “xxxxxx@xxxx.edu”