SpiralFrog has recently launched a music download service where consumers can freely download music without having to open their wallet.  Instead, the site is funded by advertisements and the music is protected with DRM based restrictions to prevent unauthorised redistribution.  Its music library consists of over 770,000 tracks and 3,500 videos, of which about 100,000 songs and 2,000 videos are from INgrooves.  It also recently made agreements to license music from Universal Music Publishing, Click Records Productions, Kudos Records and several other labels. 

The service appears to be open to US and Canadian visitors only, as visitors outside of this region are greeted with a message saying "At this time, the SpiralFrog Web site is available only to residents of the United States of America and Canada."

Thanks to Waethorn for writting in with this blog on the service:

It's free, it's 100% legal, it's ad-supported (though not by adware or spyware), and yes, it contains DRM and doesn't work with Apple products (there had to be restrictions, of course).

Universal (and it's affiliates) are supplying a lot of the music for this one after leaving iTunes.

So far, the ads don't seem to be the usual "CLICK ME for [adware-bundled] emoticons and screensavers" fare, so it seems reasonable. The site is relatively slow though, at least for me. Hopefully the speed improves.

It looks very interesting from a 5 minute review perspective anyway.

Quickie review: good service. good concept. site is kinda slow and times out frequently. plugin needs work too.

I found music in WMA 9.0, & 9.2 format (slightly better perceptual algorithms than 9.0). Everything seems to be in 128kbps single-pass CBR, but is remarkably clear-sounding, even on some quality DJ monitor headphones. U2's "18 Singles" or "U218" or however it's meant to read is available as a full album and made for a good introductory experience.

People will still complain about the DRM even though it's free, and will probably use FairUse4WM or some **** to remove the restrictions though. Honestly, if you don't want the DRM, buy the CD or else be branded a pirate! - this is about as good as it gets here folks....Buy a copy of Slysoft AnyDVD to remove the CD copy protection first though ;)