Universal is going to offer it’s entire music catalog on Spiralfrog with ad supported free downloads. Free, except that the content will be protected with MicroSoft’s DRM regime. I only have one question; how long before the DRM stripper program shows up? It’s probably already being written, and then patched, and then re-written.
I’ve yet to figure out how a file is mine when I purchase it, if I can’t play it when and where I like. That’s the stumbling block for me signing on to any of these new sites that are being touted. Hell, I don’t even own an iPod, why would I pay for songs that only play on one?
Here’s some news for you, Universal; You should have signed on when MP3.com was the powerhouse it started out to be, instead of thumbing your noses at the upstart site that dared to exercise fair use, and offer streaming content for people who could prove they owned copies of the music. There might have been some significant ad revenue to compensate the artists then.
I know several independent artists that are still nostalgic for those bygone days when they actually received checks for song play at MP3.com. Nothing has come along since that even remotely compares to it.
Ad revenues being what they are these days on the Internet, can a new entry like Spiralfrog generate enough revenue to compensate artists for their work? Or will this be the usual corporate media arrangement, where only the suits in offices get paid?
There aren’t any sites that can compete with the traffic that MP3.com could generate, and now the corporate types finally get it. “Oh, it’s like radio!” Yeah, I think we said that a few years back.
What a waste.
