Free Music Isn't Always Worth It

Earlier this week I tried out SpiralFrog, the ad-supported music service that lets you download as much music as you want, from major music labels (right now, that's pretty much Vivendi; but that's nothing to sneeze at). However, "as much music as you want" turns out to have the hidden addenum "as long as you can stand being here."

It's not that the SpiralFrog service is hard to use; although not as slick as iTunes, its clutter makes it confusing only for a few moments when you first get into it. It also turns out that the ads aren't all that much of a problem. If you're already used to tuning out Web banners and the like, you won't even notice them.

SpiralFrog's real problems are speed and convenience. My broadband connection suddenly felt like dialup when I tried to explore the SpiralFrog catalog, and downloading was almost as bad. However, I tried the service out on Monday, when SpiralFrog officially launched -- I imagine their servers were maxed out in short order.

Normally I'd say something about seeing how the speed improves on future visits, but I've got no urge to go back. First of all, all the tracks are DRMed WMA files, which won't play three of my five of my portable audio players; nor can I play them on any PC but the one I downloaded them on. (And as you can imagine, my MacBook is right out.) Second, downloads are pretty inconvenient -- using SpiralFrog's Web-based download manager, I had to initiate the download for each track individually.

Third and most heinously, SpiralFrog holds its users hostage; without monthly visits to the site, any downloaded music or videos just stop working.

So, yeah, the SpiralFrog service is free, in that it doesn't cost money; but it demands far too much from me in other ways.