According  to The New York Times and bloggers covering the story, there are some major drawbacks associated with the free SpiralFrog service, due to launch in December, supported by Universal Music Group and possibly some other major record labels.

1. You must listen to a 90-second audio commercial for every tune you download.
   
2. Your music will be in the protected WMA format, not playable on iPods.
3. You will not be able to burn a CD with the music, but can listen to songs on a limited number of computers or MP3 players.
4. You will have to return to the SpiralFrog site to view ads each month or your downloaded songs will expire.

Napster is already offering some free streaming music with advertising and so is Rhapsody. The New York Times also reports that peer-to-peer music site Kazaa will relaunch with a similar business model to SpiralFrog’s — free music supported by ads.

Related Links:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift