Ad-Supported Free Music Downloads Doomed to Failure?

madonna writes "CNET extensively explains why the new We7.com download service — which offers ad-embedded free music downloads without DRM — is doomed to failure. 'This service absolutely, categorically will not succeed. You can quote us on that. It's true the best way to combat piracy is to provide a realistic and affordable alternative, and free is certainly affordable. But music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements.'"

Comments

Guaranteed success...

[evilviper]

In Cnet style, I will guarantee success, provided only that the record labels don't pull the plug...

music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements.

Quite the opposite. P2P is notorious for crappy quality, fake files, and damaged files.

An ad on every song is excessive, but a couple second run through mp3splt (or mp3trim on Win32) and you're done.

Better/easier than P2P. I fail to see how this is bad.

What's more, everyone will probably listen to the ad a couple times before they remove it, so it should still make money for advertisers, and keep the site in business.