Free All Media has launched this week, proposing a new model for legal music downloads.
The company will use the tried-and-failed ad-supported model, but unlike SpiralFrog and others, the company will give users more interaction with the ads they see, as well as more choices.
CEO Richard Nailling explained this week, to Cnet, how the site will work, including the new nuances that they hope will separate them from other failed legal download sites.
Customers select the MP3 they want to purchase, as well as a "sponsor" that will, in theory, "buy" the track for them. They then watch an ad from that sponsor, about 18 seconds long, and afterwards, can download the MP3 they selected, with no DRM and at 256kbps bitrate.
The interesting part is what follows, as explained by the source: "Free All Music will then use the downloader's handle in other banner ads for that sponsor, which Free All Music will place around the Web using an (as yet undisclosed) third-party ad network, as well as through its own ad network, which will focus on music-oriented sites. In other words, you might be visiting CNET and see "MattR just downloaded 'Angry Chair' by Alice in Chains...sponsored by Converse." In this way, Free All Music will be able to sell multiple ads per download and perhaps earn enough money to cover the license fee for each song."
The model in itself sounds great, and you will be hard pressed to find anyone who won't take a free song for listening (or opening a new tab and ignoring) an 18 second ad. Free All Music knows this, and therein lies the catch. Users can only download up to 15 songs per month, which will stay the maximum until more advertisers sign on.
