SpiralFrog taking it's acts on the road

A music downloading service that opened in Canada earlier this year is now hitting the road to offer its music in the U.S. The ad supported service, SpiralFrog, features more than 700,000 tracks mostly from Universal music and independent labels. There is a download manager which is not compatible with iTunes, and users are required to keep their membership current or they are cut off from the service. If a membership is not renewed within 30 days, download privileges are cut off and after 60 days the songs will no longer play. Membership is free and completely supported by ads. CBC Story here. To be honest, I haven't tried the service so I'll have to reserve judgment. The titles seem a little limited but then again so are Amie Street's and I'm liking that service.

Amie Street celebrates with classics - DRM free

Earlier this week Amie Street, the popular music download site that prices music according to the number of downloads, announced that it had received an investment from Amazon.com. Also this week there have been some works of several classic big names added to the download collection. If you are a jazz lover check out Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Other notables include the King himself, Elvis Presley, and comedian George Carlin. As always, the real nuggets are the up and comers who are taking advantage of this fantastic platform to get their music out there. Let's not forget that it's all DRM-free! Get over to Amie Street fast to get in on the real deals.

New CD format from Disney - CDVU+

Battling declining CD sales, Walt Disney Co. music label Hollywood Records is launching a new CD format known as CD View Plus (CDVU+). The new format will offer CD buyers additional content similar to that found on DVDs, in this case song lyrics, photos and other extras aimed at encouraging fans to give up their downloading ways. The Globe and Mail has this story. I think it's a last ditch effort that might be a little too late for the music industry, the youngsters are all about the downloading! I personally think that the Amie Street model is the way to go, it rewards artists for producing good music and encourages music lovers to visit often, not to mention its DRM free! But then again the model rewards the artist and that's not what the big labels are all about. Wake up music industry, your shiny new trinkets will not entice anyone... just what everybody needs another new format, lame! The only good news in this is that the format will be offered in a more earth friendly packaging.

Free music downloads... if you are fast!

TechCrunch has reported that Amie Street turns one year old today. Amie Street is a music download service similar to iTunes but with a distinct difference. Artists (including Bare Naked Ladies) upload their tracks for users to download, the songs are initially free and increase in price from $.01 to $.99 as they get more popular. The artists in this case actually get 70% of the income which is a huge difference from what they get when signed to the major labels. Not only can you help the artists by purchasing through Amie Street, but the first 5000 (make that 4999 ;-) TechCrunch readers who enter the promo code "TechCrunch" will receive a $2.50 credit. Act fast, they are going quick.