90 seconds is a long time... I'm sure that it would take less time for a hack to be available to bypass the adds.

Reply

Can't I just open up 'Download Squad' in a new window during the download?

Reply

90 seconds? That's a whole life!!!
5 seconds would be fine, I think, but after a week or so, I would get really sick of it.

Reply

FREE download? For an ad? I can turn the volume off and minimise the window, so what do I care? Sure, I'd accept that kind of deal...

-c

Reply

90 seconds wouldn't bother me, if it were actually 90 seconds. On dial-up, that's not generally the case. For certain songs, though, I could wait a very, very long time.

Reply

I could probably put up with this a few times a day. I could always turn down the volume on my speakers and read the comics while the commercials are playing.

Reply

So, you only need to watch the ad once? If so I would give it a try. I am only interested in a few new tunes now and then. But I think music junkies would be overwhelmed with 90 second ads. That, and you know the music industry will screw it up.

Reply

I'm frankly amazed that anybody could turn this offer down. Speakers off, open a new window, do something else while you wait. If that gets me free music, I'm in.

Reply

If I were gonna do ad supported downloads, I would insert a 5-10 second ad (a jingle or tagline) before each song or before every other song. Then I would randomly insert a 90 second ad after every 5th song or so. I figure that in order to make money with this model, you have to show a lot of ads, so at least keep them short. If folks will stomach the short ads, I think they'll tolerate the occasional long one.

Reply

I doubt the idea will be a itunes killer, and most people would either prefer to pay for the tracks, or as the case quite often is, download them illegally for free.

However that doesn't mean it wont be a success. If less than 1% of the population was up for the idea, then chances are it would still be successful, and make money etc.

Personally i would be up for downloading the odd track, and it is good value... 10 x 90 secs is 15 minutes. Therefore in quater of an hour you get a £10 album for free. However in a busy day that is still quite a bit of time simply to waste! (unfortunately tho, at present i dont think it's being released in the UK / Europe, so is no use to me anyway)

Reply

I'm in.
It's free, so why should I care if a 90-second ad is playing in the background while I'm surfing my internets?

Reply

Considering the alternatives for getting free songs (for most of us anyway)are shady internet sites or p2p software, this is not a bad deal at all. If i only have to listen to a 90 second ad once, for a track i want, then sure. My main concern is whether there will be any drm associated with it....as that would kill the deal for me. It irks me that pirates can play the songs anywhere, be it on their phones as ringtones or any other conceivable device, while i have to do crap like authorization and live with limitations on my purchased music.

Reply

I'd definitely do it, but then, I'm a fiend for free music.

Reply

Is it per download or every time you listen to it?

If the latter, there is no way you can build a music library from the content on that site.

If the former, then it means there's no way to use the system for more than sampling new music. UNLESS you can queue up the downloads in the background and just completely ignore the ads. If the user interface requires users to "accept the download" after the ad's done, this will only work for people who have nothing else to do with their lives.

Either way the service is unusable for anyone who is a mass consumer of music. That is, I assume, what the service wants people to do, right?

Reply

90 seconds to save $0.99 is a pretty good deal. if you do that for an hour straight, that's like making $39.6/hour. how many of you here make that much in an hour? ummm ... i don't.

Reply

Now that I've got my music collection mostly on my iPod, maybe, since I don't buy songs that often... but for someone just starting out and wanting to build up their back collection (by buying music they had on cassette or LP) - no way.

Reply

I'm assuming this is meant as a 90 second ad per download, not per each time you want to listen to the song.

If it's per download then it should work, and i'm certain the majority of people would go for it. As for how long the advertisers will stick around when they realize the downloader isn't watching their commercial is anyone's guess.

If they expect people to watch a commercial every time a song is played then absolutely not.

Reply

I believe that ad-supported sites which provide Creative Commons attribution or GNU or even PD downloads will be a workable way to distribute music, as music, like antenna-reception television, becomes seen as a thing for the consumer is not expected to pay but which advertisers use to draw traffic.

The form of the ad content here, though, gives me pause. It is possible that people may want to watch video commercials, but I think that click-through print ads are the more likely wave of the future.

I think that fans could support music labels by using the NASCAR model. Rather than just clicking, they could make a conscious effort to buy the product and say "I bought this product because you advertise on.....record label". This form of brand loyalty allows niche interest groups to command advertiser dollars through concentrated effort.

I think that ad-based Creative Commons site with free-to-download content are the future. My internal question is the form the content will take, and the kind of street effort to encourage advertisers that could become the new form of guerilla marketing for music creators and purveyors.

Reply

I'm sure I read somewhere that the music only stays playable if you keep watching ads. Which kills the idea stone dead for me. I don't think you can burn the tracks to disc either.... so you're basically renting the music.

Reply

If its just going to be an a one time ad for a single song, I would be okay with it. After all, I don't download lot many songs and watching an ad for a few of them would be worth it.

Reply