| Industry | Music Downloads |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York |
| Parent | none |
| Website | formerly SpiralFrog.com |
SpiralFrog was a music download service based in New York that launched in the United States and Canada on September 17, 2007. SpiralFrog offered free and legal music downloads, all supported by advertising, and was the largest site of its kind in North America. On March 19, 2009, SpiralFrog terminated operations due to loan recalls.[1]
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SpiralFrog was entirely supported by advertising, allowing free download of its music. The ads were presented in the form of banner ads much like any news website rather than in the form of popups or adware. Songs downloaded from the service could not be burned to a CD, put on more than two portable devices and would not work on Mac OS X or the Apple iPod, iPhone, or the Microsoft Zune. However, they would work with any digital audio player or music phone that supports WMA PlaysForSure subscription services. Customers had to visit the site at least once every 60 days and renew their license by signing in or downloading a song, and the songs would work for sixty days after the last license renewal. In the event that the license should expire, it could always be renewed at a later date to restore function to the tracks. For songs that were on portable devices, the device had to be synced with a computer once every 60 days to keep the songs active. In addition to music, Spiralfrog had 5000+ music videos also available for free at 300Kbps streaming or 1000Kbps if you chose to download it. Spiralfrog boasted approximately 800,000 songs upon its launch and offered more than 3 million tracks for download. When active Spiralfrog.com had 3,000,000+ songs and 5,000+ music videos available for free download, and at peak had more than 6,000,000 monthly visitors, and 2.6 million registered users.
SpiralFrog had licensing agreements with most major music owners[2] in the United States, Canada and in Britain.
On September 17, 2007, SpiralFrog.com formally launched in United States. Joe Mohen, then chairman and founder of SpiralFrog Inc. stated: "With SpiralFrog you know what you're getting ... there's no threat of viruses, adware or spyware; We believe it will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites." At initial launch, it offered 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos for download (by way of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group).[3]
SpiralFrog utilized 128 kbit/s which is the standard for most digital music stores such as the Walmart digital music store or 192 kbit/s (for more complex songs that would otherwise sound distorted) Windows Media Audio files wrapped in Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM. DRM does not allow burning music to a CD but allows sideloading music to up to two portable audio devices. Music from SpiralFrog was not compatible with the Apple iPod or Microsoft's Zune.[4]