Download songs for free, in return for watching a few ads. It sounds like a great deal if you're a music fan. Yet SpiralFrog, the company bidding to be the first to launch such a business model, appears to have run into problems.
Several executives have left the company since Christmas, and it has only signed up one of the major record labels, Universal. The company also missed its original launch date of late last year, although it reportedly still plans to go ahead with a launch next month.
As a potential punter, I can't see SpiralFrog being truly successful until it has all the labels and indie record companies on board. But as analyst Steve Mayall says in the CNET story, the problems that this company may be facing doesn't mean it's curtains for ad-supported music downloads.
"(SpiralFrog's executive turmoil) suggests there are no legs to the idea of ad-supported music. If the company that shouts the loudest can't make a go of it, then some might suspect the rest of the companies involved can't make a go of it either. That's not true. I believe there is great potential here."
(via CNET)