SpiralFrog.com, a long-waited website that offers free music downloads with money coming from advertisers, finally announced its launch in North America on Monday.(File Photo)

    BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- SpiralFrog.com, a long-waited website that offers free music downloads with money coming from advertisers, finally announced its launch in North America on Monday.

    The music service, which has arranged to pay record companies a cut of its advertising revenue, will allow anyone to access and download files from a library of more than 800,000 songs and 3,500 music videos, with new content being added every day. Music fans also will be able to view millions of artist bios, reviews, discography and album art, among other rich content features.

    "We believe it will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites," said Joe Mohen, chairman and founder of New York-based SpiralFrog Inc. "With SpiralFrog you know what you're getting ... there's no threat of viruses, adware or spyware."

    To deter users from posting copies of songs and videos they get from SpiralFrog, the service requires that users register and log on to the site at least once a month. Otherwise, the content locks up and can't be played.

    Specifically, users must wait 90 seconds before downloading each song, and also must fill out a questionnaire about their music buying habits. Also, the free tracks are in WMA format and cannot be burned to a CD nor played on an iPod. Labels and music publishers receive over half of the income derived from advertising on the site.

    The service was announced in August of 2006, but missed its early 2007 launch and instead underwent an executive shuffle that ended with the ouster of then-CEO Robin Kent.

    (Agencies)