Universal Music In Legal Music Download Service

Spiral Frog

SpiralFrog and Universal Music Group Partner in Advertising-Supported Legal Music Download Service

New York, August 29, 2006 SpiralFrog, the new music download destination, has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, 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 quality songs and music videos by great artists as among the primary benefits users will gain.

Digital rights management technology is built-in to all audio and video content as part of measures the company and its partners are actively taking to address piracy. "We want to provide the best environment for everyone - our partners and the recording artists, as well as consumers," Kent said. "Piracy continues to be one of the biggest issues facing the music industry where illegal file sharing and unauthorized CD burning are the prime means of music piracy. Digital rights protection will help us combat piracy and provide peace of mind for the record labels and the artists."

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.

“We believe SpiralFrog will deliver an audience we highly desire and need to reach,” said Oscar Feldenkreis, Vice-Chairman, President and COO at Perry Ellis International, Inc. “Our audience is heavily into music and can be more easily reached on the web. We see SpiralFrog as an ideal place for us to communicate and build lasting relationships with our core audience and which give us unique new revenue opportunities.”

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. Companies like SpiralFrog offer a more direct engagement opportunity and have the potential to be of value to consumers and, as a result, our clients." Mediaedge:cia is a unit of GroupM, the media investment management arm of WPP Group, one of the world's largest communications services groups.

"Our target audience is the driving force behind the changes in how music is created, discovered and consumed," Kent said. "They are the future of music. We believe SpiralFrog's differentiated offering will be highly appealing to them as well as to content providers."

SpiralFrog's target audience - people between the ages of 13 and 34 - is an advertiser's dream, Kent added. "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."

SpiralFrog will launch in beta later this year.

About SpiralFrog

SpiralFrog (www.spiralfrog.com) is the new online music destination offering advertising-supported legal downloads of audio and video content licensed from the catalogs of the world’s leading record labels and from independents. SpiralFrog offers music-lovers a compelling alternative to illegal file-sharing and pirate sites, with a secure environment for them to satisfy their unyielding passion and thirst for music, entertainment, information and brands at no cost except for their time and attention.

Headquartered in New York, SpiralFrog will launch its advertising-supported service in beta in late 2006.

ENDS

© Scoop Media