A new website, SpiralFrog, has recently launched after several years of beta testing. It provides Napster and Rhapsody-like music downloading service that allows you download legal music and music videos for free. You do not have to pay anything. You simply sign up on the website and download their download manager.
The website is ad supported, and as of right now has only one major record label that has signed with them. The files that you download are in .wma and .wmv format. These files only work on mp3 players that support "Plays for Sure," i.e. Microsoft's DRM.
I personally think that this is a great alternative to bitTorrent and Limewire, however I don't like the DRM issues. However, it is possible to remove the DRM with FairUse4WM. I see this as better than downloading illegally through file-sharing programs, as the artists still get money, and it isn't easy to track (so you don't owe the artist money).
So far, other than the DRM, the main issue with SpiralFrog is very high usage. So many people are downloading songs that it runs very slow and can lock up. I have not yet succesfully downloaded a file. However, I believe this is a Windows Media Player issue, as I only have Windows Media Player 9, and I believe you need 10 or higher. I have downloaded 90 songs from SpiralFrog, and new songs are being added every day. The DRM removal works very well, and I really like it. However, there are several annoying problems with SpiralFrog. You have to hit "Download Next" to download the next song in your download que, and every now and then the download fails for no reason at all.
SpiralFrog does not work with Apple computers.
