No, not free music by lawyers, but this:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10398972

Questions:
1. Can it really work? Will they make enough money?
2. What's to stop people just plugging in 24 hours a day and, given enough storage, just downloading the whole catalogue?
3. What impact would this have on Apple?

Sounds like a dream come true for many of you. Free music and a crushing blow to Apple.

Only in the US? Hmm. That is a shame.

I've no idea how much money they'll make- not as much as the record company get a for a normal cd, that's for sure.

They may be able to impose some form of limit per day- I'm not good enough with computers to know whether that is feasible or not.

Looks like another step away from cds and into downloading.

I wonder what this will mean for the concept of an 'album'. The number of songs on an album was historically determined by the limitations of the media (e.g. size of a vinyl record).

In a completely online world, will we even have 'albums' any more?

It will be one of the first sites to offer free music legally, allowing fans to download songs by some of the record company's list of artists, including U2, Gwen Stefani and The Roots. Actually, that's totally legal since it's Universal, which *owns* the music in the first place. As the article mentions, income is made my on-site advertising, and to prevent people from downloading the entire catalog:
allowing fans to download songs by some of the record company's list of artists, including U2, Gwen Stefani and The Roots. No thanks. :p
Downloads from Spiralfrog will not be compatible with iTunes' service and iPods. YES! :banana: Take *that* Apple! :thumb: :rolling:

Unfortunately, "Spiralfrog" is a terrible name for a website.

Unfortunately, "Spiralfrog" is a terrible name for a website. :lol:
Maybe that's another one of their plans to keep too many people from downloading from their site! :p :rolling:

I think that they are doing this to open our eyes to "legal downloads". When we are used to gatting music this way we will perhaps continue, it sounds like a Wal-Mart buesniss idéa to me.