A Networked Home

Testing Spiral Frog

I signed up for Spiral Frog the day it went live. I couldn’t wait to listen to and download all of the music I could think of! After signing up for the free account I was unable to download any music, but it was early and the servers were working overtime, so I waited. And waited, and waited…. After a couple of weeks everything seemed to be working. I browsed the site and found “Hey There Delila”, a song I knew I had heard and liked, so I clicked the “Download”. A little slow, but it’s free so I can live with slow. The song eventually downloaded. Now I can play my new music, right? Well, not so fast…. I try and I try, but the DRM seems to be an issue. After clicking through a few messages it tells me I need the “latest” version of WMP (which I am already running). So, I bite and download a new codec for the latest version of WMP (which I am running, but Spiral Frog doesn’t know it). and I STILL can’t play this song!!! After several failed tries I deleted the song, uninstalled the Spiral Frog “Download Manager” and swore I would NEVER, EVER use this service again! The concept may be good, but when you DRM it to death it becomes meaningless!