FreeAllMusic.com had announced sometime back that it would offer free songs to the public in a model that was based on ad sales. Now, it has also been announced that EMI Music has offered licensed music to this ad-supported music website. With this deal, EMI Music has become the second major label on board the startup FreeAllMusic.com
The FreeAllMusic.com business model is similar to that of SpiralFrog. However, the songs at SpiralFrog were full of Digital Rights Management (DRM) – whereas FreeAllMusic.com has come up with a novel way of bypassing this issue. At the press release, FreeAllMusic.com stated that it will provide users with DRM-free audio and that the rights will be paid for the advertisers. All the users have to do is watch a short video commercial before every download.
It seems to be a feasible model that could make for a good customer experience as well as chart a new way of bringing the music companies and piracy-addict fans to a common ground. However, it might be interesting to see if this scheme sustains itself – as the advertisers might back out of the whole deal after some time.
Most companies that tried to strike a deal with EMI Music – such as SpiralFrog, Ruckus, and Imeem – had failed; and FreeAllMusic.com has certainly managed to get itself a prize this time. Keeping in mind the fact that most ad-supported music agencies find it hard to cover cost and make ends meet, perhaps FreeAllMusic.com is all set to start a new trend.