Universal backs free music rival to iTunes

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Universal Music, the world’s largest music company, is backing a start-up that will allow consumers to download songs for free. It will rely on advertising for its revenues, offering a different business model from that of Apple Computer’s popular iTunes music store.

The move reflects music companies’ willingness to experiment as they try to capture some profit from the boom in digital distribution still dominated by illegal file-sharing networks.

The service, SpiralFrog, represents a departure from Apple’s 99 cents-a-song business model and other legal download services which
charge a subscription fee by being completely free. It is due to start up in December.
Read the article @ Financial Times.

This sounds promising free music for p2p users , consumers & Universal gets to make some money too.I just hope it's not ad/spyware infected ads that they use or force people to install it on their PC if they want to use the service.

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EMI Music Publishing First to License Music and Lyrics to SpiralFrog for Advertising-Supported Download Service

New York, September 6, 2006 SpiralFrog, the new music download destination, has signed an agreement with EMI Music Publishing, the world's leading music publishing company, to authorize SpiralFrog’s use of EMI's vast catalog of musical compositions available for legal downloading in the United States via SpiralFrog's advertising-supported service.
Read the press release on spiralfrog.