What's the real cost of free music?

by Greg Sandoval, CNET News, March 23, 2009

SpiralFrog met its end just days ago, and already, operators of other ad-supported music services are rushing to put distance between their business models and that of the doomed site.

"The concept was good, but the management, board (not all), and execution were poor," wrote Robin Kent, the former CEO of SpiralFrog who went to work as an adviser to Qtrax, one of SpiralFrog's competitors. "It was obvious to anyone...it wouldn't survive."

What might encourage supporters to jump to the defense of ad-supported music services, which don't charge users to listen to music but support themselves through ad sales, is the undeniable whiff of failure floating around the sector. In the first three months of the year, SpiralFrog has followed Ruckus, the music service that catered to college students, onto the scrapheap.

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