Ad-supported online music service Spiral Frog suspended operations yesterday, nearly three years after its launch. SpiralFrog launched in Summer 2006 to much media fanfare, painting itself as a free alternative to .99/song iTunes, and as a legal alternative to illegal file-sharing sites. At that time, SpiralFrog CEO Robin Kent said, “Offering young consumers an easy-to-use [...]

According to the latest MusicWatch consumer surveys from The NPD Group, Apple is again the top music retailer in the US. The five leading music retailers in the U.S. for the first half of 2008 (January through June, based on purchases of CDs and a-la-carte digital music downloads) are: iTunes Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music [...]

According to the Guardian’s Tim Anderson, DRM’d music is going to stage a comeback, and Apple’s going to be the one making it happen. The music industry wants to sell new services, like music subscriptions, and DRM’s is central to making these services viable. To succeed, though, subscription music services need to work with iPods [...]

The music industry is working on an all-you-can-eat music model, Total Music, that is generating a lot of interest. The idea behind¬†Total Music¬†is that you’ll buy a portable music player or mobile phone¬†and either pay an inexpensive monthly fee¬†for access to unlimited music, or the cost will be hidden in either the purchase price for [...]

Digital music consumers listen to more music, enjoy more new music, talk more about music and attend more concerts, according to a survey released today by the Digital Media Association (DiMA). Nearly 60 percent of consumers report that they are listening to more music since they started using an online service. The 1008 consumers surveyed [...]

The “news” that iTunes sales are plummeting seems to have been picked up by every blogger and analyst that has an axe to grind about iTunes or digital music in general. A common theme in the coverage is that people were finally rebelling against copy-protected digital music. This would make sense….if digital music sales were [...]

The mainstream music industry is experimenting with selling unencrypted MP3 files, a move it has long resisted because of concerns over piracy. Blue Note Records is selling the latest single from jazz-pop singer Norah Jones, Thinking About You, through Yahoo as an MP3. Another EMI act, Christian rock band Relient K, also released two MP3s [...]

Goombah is a free desktop application, launched today, for Mac or Windows that provides music recommendations based on your tastes and the interests of other Goombah users. Goombah analyzes each user’s iTunes collection and listening behavior and connects them to people and music that match their taste. Users can sample recommendations and purchase them from [...]