The Medialoper Review of Spiral Frog

I’d been resisting doing a review of Spiral Frog for awhile. I’ve written about it negatively at least twice before, and so I want to say this up front: there is just no way for me to be objective about this site.

As a crazed lifelong music fan, I do not believe that there is any value for me in advertiser-supported free downloads. I’d much prefer to pay for a song once and play it wherever I wish, instead of wading through an ad, and not having any freedom with it. And besides, the advertising-supported model already exists: it’s a little thing called “radio,” where I can listen to music and stuff if I want to suffer through ads.

I realize that there is a difference: when you listen to the radio, you have absolutely no choice whatsoever as to what you are getting, and with Spiral Frog, you can choose the song. However, given all of the DRM restrictions, you still don’t “own” the track, and just like radio, you still have to do the equivalent of tuning in to Spiral Frog to listen to the track again.

So for over a year, I wondered why anybody would use this: but then, after reading their press release, I realized where there are going with it: it’s more about discovery of music than ownership of music. it says so in their press release:

SpiralFrog is set to change the way people discover music by providing a robust mix of artist-related content, an active and engaging experience and a viable alternative to piracy.

They very clearly are not focusing on ownership of music, but rather being a source of discovery. Given the business model, that actually makes sense on the surface. Spiral Frog can be one of the 1,654,987,657 sources of music discovery on the internet.

However, I’m not sure that focusing on discovery makes for loyalty, and return traffic — two things that advertising-supported sites really need. However, maybe the UI is so intuitive, and the selection so comprehensive, it will be able to have both reach and loyalty.

Let’s find out. This is not going to be a comprehensive review — rather, it’s going to be what I would guess is a common scenario: a music fan checking out a song that they’ve read about, but haven’t yet heard.

Before I go to the site, let me choose a song . . . Got it! That R.E.M.-reunion version of John Lennon’s “#9 Dream” that was on that Lennon tribute album that came out a couple of months ago.

So time to actually dial up the site, and whoops!

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.
——————————————————————————–

Runtime Error
Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a tag within a “web.config” configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This tag should then have its “mode” attribute set to “Off”.

There more, of course, a whole page of errors. This is OK: we have the same type of problem at Medialoper, too. Of course, we aren’t backed by huge evil multinational corporations.

[a half-hour later]

In any event, I’ve finally gotten through: well sorta. Now, that crufty error has been upgraded to an actual branded 404 page. But at least this 404 Page has a Quizno’s banner ad! Also, it looks like I need to install a plug-in into Firefox. Which one? Oh, Windows Media Player 11. Sure, why not, I’ll just install it.

OK, it’s installed, and I’ve reloaded the 404 page, and I’m still getting that “need to install plugins” message, and now they’ve given me a Hardees banner ad. Which is weird, because they apparently can’t even tell that I’m trying to access from Southern California, and at least serve me a Carl’s Jr. banner ad, which is what Hardees is called out here.

Right. I’m still getting the plugin notification, but it’s now not telling me which plugin I need, so I’m going to try it with IE 7 . . . no problems.

So now I’m going to register. Hang on a second, I just need to lie about my Date of Birth, and my ZIP Code. Neither of those are their goddammed business. They’re just their for more targeted ads. So, as Spiral Frog is concerned, I am 82 years old.

Now, I gotta wait for them to send the confirmation email.

That was only a couple of minutes: time to start downloading FREE music!! Oh, wait, gotta install a Download manager. Fair enough, eMusic — the best download store on the entire internet — also requires a Download Manager.

Downloading and installing the Download Manager was also swift and painless.

So, let’s use their search to go find that R.E.M. song!

Well, that’s weird: I chose Artist/Group, and typed in “R.E.M.”, and it returned two pages worth of results, none of them actually R.E.M. But you’ll be glad to know that they do have “Orquestra Estable at Radio el Mundo” and “Royal Electrical & Mechanical/Morgan.”

I also noticed a helpful box on the right column that told me that “Hey There, Delilah” was the top download for this week. Of course it was. That song is like a plague of cockroaches with the half-life of Uranium 238.

In any event, let me try it without the periods: just good old “Rem.” OK, now I have 18 pages of results — every single artist where the first name or last name starts with the letters “rem.”

Christ! Found them, on Page 10. And according to the site, they have songs available for download. Whoo-hoo!

Oh, except that they only have songs from Murmur, Reckoning, and — weirdly enough — Dead Letter Office all of which I’ve owned on vinyl and then on CD, for over 20 years. It’s pretty hard to discover something that I’ve owned for that long.

However, a very helpful box on the right of the right of the page has some recommendations for me: Luciano Pavarotti, Kanye West, and — of course — “Hey There, Delilah.”

Oh, and the banner ad is now for Carl’s Jr. So good on them!

Nevertheless, I’m getting bored, so what do I want to hear that I haven’t heard? Oh, the new Thurston Moore album. And they have it! I have to assume that Sonic Youth’s DGC deal meant that Thurston Moore gets on Spiral Frog. But I thought I read that they didn’t have a label. If only I cared enough to research.

Time to download. Just the first track. Here we go . . . not so fast. I have to enter a CAPTCHA. Which is just plain weird.

Fine. Moment of truth: time to play the downloaded song. There is a helpful “Play Song” button, and here we go . . .

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.
——————————————————————————–

Runtime Error
Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a tag within a “web.config” configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This tag should then have its “mode” attribute set to “Off”.

Oh, frack me. You’ve got to be kidding! Well, maybe I can get at it through the Windows File System.

There it is:
C:\…\Music\SpiralFrog\Thurston Moore\Trees Outside The Academy\Frozen Gtr.wma

Just double-click on that puppy. And it’s playing!

It sounds OK, for a .wma file, I guess, but where is the ad? I was under the impression that I was going to be forced to view an ad prior to listening to the song, but besides the banner ads (which where just basically regular, every day banner ads), I didn’t see any.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that the site issues that I described were getting in the way of the ads getting in my way. It’s hard to know: the site is down again and I’m on deadline.

So, overall, it didn’t suck nearly as bad as I thought it was going to suck (pull quote!!) I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that I went to their site on a bad day, and those server error issues will be fixed in due course. Most of you reading this won’t experience that, I’m sure.

So does that mean that I recommend Spiral Frog to hardcore music fans? No: ideally, we want something that combines discovery with purchase, and combines purchase with freedom. I can’t play that Thurston Moore song on every single one of my digital playback devices, and if I don’t revisit the Spiral Frog site within 30 days, it self-destructs (poof!!).

That, right there, is a load of bollocks, and enough not to recommend them.

If Spiral Frog then allowed you to download unrestricted .mp3z of the songs that you had just discovered — then, they would have something to recommend.

However, I can actually see going there (very) (very) occasionally just to check something out. If I remember to, that is.

• Spiral Frog