Axehole

Universal Music Group (UMG) has announced a agreement with SpiralFrog to make UMG’s extensive catalog available for legal downloading in the US and Canada via SpiralFrog’s advertising-supported service.

SpiralFrog will offer users of its no-cost web-based service the ability to legally download music by many of the world’s most popular and award-winning artists.

“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,” said Robin Kent, SpiralFrog’s CEO. “SpiralFrog will offer those consumers a better experience and environment than they can get from any pirate site.”

Kent highlighted some key factors - legal digital files with no viruses or spyware in a controlled client-server architecture, quick downloading, and songs and music videos by popular artists as among the primary benefits users will gain.

The service will be built around digital rights management technology, offering users limited use in exchange for viewing or listening to advertisements.

Digital rights management technology is built-in to all audio and video content.

“Digital rights protection will help us combat piracy and provide peace of mind for the record labels and the artists, according to Kent.

For Universal Music Group and other record labels, the service will also be compelling, Kent said. “Offering legally-authorized audio and video downloads in an advertising-supported environment works, as our business model is based on sharing our income streams from that advertising with our content partners like Universal.”

Kent noted that the company’s research revealed that consumers are more than willing to ‘pay’ for their content by watching non-intrusive, contextually-relevant, targeted advertising in an online entertainment environment where advertising is already part of the overall experience.

Andrew McLean, Chief Client Officer Global at Mediaedge:cia, commented, “The challenge is to find ways to integrate messaging and content to engage and add value to consumers’ lives rather than just add to the message clutter out there.”

SpiralFrog’s target audience is people between the ages of 13 and 34.

“This is the core audience we will attract by building a music-centric experience and destination that is second to none, legally delivering what the majority of users want - content they pay for only with their time. It’s content that advertisers are willing to pay for on their behalf.”