I was recently given access to the new music service Free All Music (freeallmusic.com). The service promises free and legal music downloads for its users as long as they are willing to watch an advertisement before downloading. The downloaded mp3′s are DRM free, don’t have expiration dates, and are in higher bit rates than iTunes’ 128kbps (Sweet Home Alabama is 320kbps at 44.100 kHz)
Besides the better sounding music, they are building what seems to be an excellent selection of songs. They partnered with Universal Media Group and have access to all of their titles. They have a partnership with at least one other record company right now as well. While their selection of older songs is still a little limited that will come in time. The push is obviously to get today’s most popular music on the site as an alternative to downloading pirated versions of the songs.
Once you get an account (they are in private beta right now) you can get any of their songs for free. The only limitation is getting 5 per week. They have a ‘new music Tuesday’ which is in line with the industry’s Tuesday release schedule. Each Tuesday you will receive another 5 downloads, but lose any remaining downloads you had from the previous week, up to 20 downloads per month. Â They are basing this off a reported average of 11-14 track purchases made by the average iTunes user.
After choosing your song you are displayed a set of ads. You must choose one of the ads and watch the subsequent video in order to receive the download screen. Once you have downloaded the song, it’s yours. Â There’s no real reason to share the track on torrents or sharing sites since all you have to do is direct other people to the site to download the same track.
Once Free All Music is out of beta they have Facebook Connect and Twitter posting options so that you can share your music choices with your friends. The catch for your friends is that they aren’t given a choice of ads, but rather are required to watch the same video that you choose.
The advertisers pay a bigger amount than they normally would per view, but this is a different type of advertisement view than normal. By watching you are getting something. I attributed this the other day with a coworker who watches a lot of shows on Hulu. I asked him whether he watched the ads on Hulu or walked away to do something else (as is what I do when watching shows on my television). He told me that he watches the ads, but pauses the show to do something he needs to do (grab another drink, go to the bathroom, etc…). You are more likely to watch the advertisement in this case since you are going to get something in return.
All the appropriate parties (artists, songwriters, record companies) get paid in this model. I think I just found my new resource for music.
Happy Downloading!
–dez
