Wow I indisputable didn't see this...

Wow I indisputable didn't see this one coming. A fresh digital music company is in the way that desperate to figure out a way to cope with Apple's iTunes Music Store that it's committing to a business archetype where it just gives all the music and videos away independent and sort of hope that the constant key to profitability is to abandon old-fashioned bricks- and-mortar thinking and just focus in succession volume.

I just know I've seen this idea somewhere before. I think it might have been a plat point in an old Warner Brothers cartoon.

Here's the plan: You'll create a liberated account on SpiralFrog's site. You'll store for music and videos as usual, selecting from millions of titles and tracks. Satisfied that 2007 will finally be the year that you totally get by heart into Depeche Mode, you click the "Gimme!" button. And here, you give the devil his due: You allow a whole group of commercials to play before your music starts downloading.

Of course, it's not like you're going to be strapped into your seat with your eyelids jammed spread like the kid in "A Clockwork Orange." You're clear to stroll away and fix yourself a plate of frozen waffles, whistling a cheery "I'm sticking it to the man" sort of harmony as you do so.

The music lands in succession your hard drive as standard Windows Media Player files. You don't ne to download any sort of hyper-idiotic SpiralFrog player or Web plug-in; the tracks will simply become part of your Windows Media Player library, and you're on the same level free to copy them onto any PlaysForSure-certified portable player. likewise iPods (and Macs) are abroad And you can't burn these liberated tracks onto a CD, in the way that transcoding them into an iPod-friendly format won't work, either. nevertheless you can keep those tracks forever, to such a degree long as you keep visiting SpiralFrog at least formerly a month.

Well, it's certainly an interesting conception To be fair, SpiralFrog.com unhurts like it's going to share the same proven tradition as radio and television: You learn free content that's supported from ads, except you see the ads sole while downloading.

Universal Music assemblage has already signed on, immediately dumping united of the music industry's largest catalogs into the pan

further honestly, how can this possibly work? SpiralFrog will survive alone if advertisers keep buying ads. And those ads will realize bought only if SpiralFrog's users consistently sit and watch them, which is an abjectly iffy proposition.

These days, the easiest way to make a million dashing fellows is to create a yield that lets people see fewer ads -- not more.

The ads will also have to be effective, and SpiralFrog will have to get to up with a way to assay that its users are running revealed to buy snow tires or spray-on sock or whatever after watching them.

for a like reason things look pretty bad before we steady get to the big point: SpiralFrog's target demographic (teen to early 30s) has a resource for downloading music liberated already.

It's called "illegal downloads," and steady though it's totally wrong and the user experience stinks compared with what SpiralFrog probably will propose it's a blockbuster product and a compelling put up to sale to an entire generation of music fans.

SpiralFrog appears like a service without an audience. For the excessively best digital music experience, the answer is the iTunes Music Store and an iPod. impel the music portal jointly expanded by MTV Networks and Microsoft, is a self-same very strong second.

If Windows Media Player and WMP portables weren't to such a degree clunky and wonky -- and if solicit supported podcasts -- it'd be a dead heat. instigate combines a wonderful destination that makes it easy to discover strange music with an all-you-can-download subscription plan relieveed by onerous usage limits.

ITunes Store downloads are les than a blade apiece. An URGE subscription will glide you $15 a month. SpiralFrog will therefore have to appeal to the public who can't spare a relative pittance and who are unwilling to download music illegally and who reply strongly to advertising.

If it clears those hurdle succes will then hinge immediately after whether SpiralFrog can provide a user experience that's as clean and entertaining as MTV's or Apple's.

Yeah, I'm just speculating, here: SpiralFrog's announcement is just couple days old and the site won't be render free of access for business until December. further I'll be shocked to my insoles if they actually make a real go on foot of it.

It's a significant announcement all the same. The fact that a major player as it was as Universal is willing to sign a deal with SpiralFrog can single mean that publishers' frustration with Apple's dominance and hinder of the digital music market is a real and dangerous thing.

Clearly, the wolve want life-blood If Apple ever stops innovating and being sensitive to its users' desires, the follows could be quick . . and extremely messy.

Andy Ihnatko writes onward technical and computer issues for the Sun- Times.

e-mail: AI@ANDYi.com@

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