The controversial Spiral Frog (who we, along with a slew of other places skewered upon its early anouncement) is facing a really tough battle for acceptance. An informal poll (Which isn't binding, unless proposition 14 passes, and we all hope it will. Appologies to the Simpsons) shows that as many as %60 of digital music consumers say that Spiral Frog shouldn't bother to launch. The ad supported service which promises to deliver major label music for "free", in exchange for non-skippable advertiser content has managed to secure several content deals and make quite a few headlines but, is completely failing to captivate the excitement of its target audience.
Now, there's no question that a poll of only 200 people has a very wide margin of error and, I wouldn't expect the execs at Spiral Frog to take the advice of a few blog readers and abandon the investments made so far. It should however serve as a warning shot for anyone who's looking to revolutionize the content industry. I'm not a compass for the mass market but, I think I can safely say to Spiral Frog, "You're off course"
[via Hypebot]
1. I am quite anxious to see the launch - til then it's really hard to judge how much (or little) I'll like this idea.
What I think is hurting them is that there's already been so much press and publicity (and buzz), but nothing for most people to see or interact with. A concept like this that will be new to most needs to be used, not discussed, to really have an impact. Hopefully it'll go live before the interest wanes too far.
Posted at 5:23PM on Nov 14th 2006 by Jason Feinberg