• CNET News.com, Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:18 AM

Remember SpiralFrog? The much-ballyhooed online music provider was supposed to be the first free, ad-supported music service to collaborate with the major record labels. The site was also supposed to launch last year, but it never did.

CNET reports infighting among SpiralFrog's board led to the company's failure to launch. Late last year, Robin Kent, the former chief of Universal McCann Worldwide, was ousted as the company's CEO. At least five members of its executive team and three board members followed. The company's marketing, strategy and operating officers--those said to have the closest ties to the music industry--were among those who left the fledgling company.

Just about everyone declined to comment, but company spokespeople insisted that the show will go on, and SpiralFrog will launch sometime in the next month (heard that before). SpiralFrog isn't the first music company to try the ad-supported model, but it's the first to land a huge partner in Universal Music Group. Other big deals were supposed to follow, but didn't.

Should SpiralFrog fail, will the music labels find a way to collaborate on a free, ad-supported service of their own, or will another independent step forward?

Read the whole story at CNET News.com »