Strange New World: Picks of the Week

Sept. 20, 2007 — -- In what could turn into the throwback tech pick of the week -- if not the year -- it looks like 100 percent free online music is making another run at the big time. Almost six years to the day after the original oh-so-cool Napster was sent to the tech woodshed, a well-hyped new free music site dubbed SpiralFrog is attempting to make money in the digital music business the old-fashioned way: from advertising.

And speaking of advertising, it looks like social networking sites such as MySpace will start rolling out so-called targeted advertising soon. Ads will be delivered to MySpace users based on their personal information. Yes, this is an innovation ... an innovation in creepiness.

And we went green for our final pick: what's hot in the cool fuel cell symposium in London.

Here, then, are our picks for the week.

Ever since the demise of Napster, the music industry has been searching for the "digital holy grail" -- a music download site that, while free to download, will still pay the rent of artists and record company execs. Spiralfrog.com just might be what the industry has been waiting for. The new Web site plans to make all its money from ad revenue and then -- gasp -- share it with the music industry.

All sides may at last have found a business model: Because the music industry is getting paid, it has no problem providing content. Consumers get what they want -- tons of free music. And artists get the exposure that only free viral marketing can provide.

Spiralfrog now has a library of 800,000 songs and 3,500 music videos, with more planned for later. And from what we can see, the thing is not a subscription-based site like Rhapsody. There is no monthly fee and you can keep your music.

Our advice: Get to Spiralfrog as fast as you can and download as much as you can. We are not predicting disaster, but sites like this tend to come and go ... you know what we mean?