ad-supported

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon.com offers a cheaper. ad-supported Kindle

Google launches a trivia page called A Google a Day

A U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the Winklevoss twins who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Google plans to invest $168 million in a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert

New legislation may propose a sales tax on all online transactions

Sony introduces two new OLED monitors

First, there were friends with benefits. Now Amazon has Kindle with Special Offers.

That's right, Amazon will be shipping a new ad-supported version of its popular e-reader on May 3 for $114 or $25 less than the standard Wi-Fi-only Kindle, which retails for $139. This new model--available for preorder now--is also Wi-Fi-only and comes in the same carbon color as its ad-free sibling. Specs-wise, the two devices are identical.

The big question, of course, is why $114 and not some other number, say $99? Apparently, Amazon isn't willing to go quite that low quite yet, but Russ Grandinetti, … Read more

The other day I downloaded Pik Pok's Flick Kick Field Goal Kickoff for the iPad. The description said something about it being a "free app of the day," so I thought I was getting a paid app for free.

Low and behold, after about 5 minutes of playing the game, a time out was called on the field, and a somewhat surreal video popped up on the screen advertising the Swiffer floor-cleaning system, complete with women in mud suits and Heart's "What About Love" playing in the background. (see the full ad here).

The … Read more

Stardust is sprinkled all over music service Spotify.

In recent months, users, reviewers, and even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have heaped praise on the European service, which has yet to launch in the United States. But while Spotify may be a nifty service, it may also be a textbook example of how popularity doesn't mean profits.

CEO Daniel Ek appeared to acknowledge that his company has a long way to go before hitting profitability in a candid note he posted to the site on Thursday. Writing on the anniversary of the site's launch, Ek signaled that the service … Read more

In July 2008, two months before start-up SpiralFrog's aspirations were shredded by the souring economy and a series of management gaffes, the long knives were already drawn in the music service's executive suite.

In a private meeting, CEO Mel Schrieberg was stripped of most of his power after SpiralFrog's board grew tired of his heavy spending on salaries and ineffective marketing strategies. Even worse for Schrieberg, the man intent on driving him out was an old friend and one of his main allies at the company, founder Joe Mohen.

"The board wants him removed now," … Read more

Three years ago this month, the Financial Times and The New York Times chronicled the emergence of an untried but promising new digital-music service: SpiralFrog.

The start-up would offer music free of charge to consumers and attempt to hand the bill to advertisers. Since then, we've seen a dozen companies make names for themselves by offering their own twist on the ad-supported music model, including MySpace Music, Imeem, and Pandora. But regardless of how anyone has tweaked it, not a single service in the still-nascent sector has proven that it knows how to offer consumers a compelling free-music service … Read more

The dot-com era had eToys, Webvan, and Pets.com. The digital-entertainment boom has SpiralFrog.

The day SpiralFrog likely reserved a corner in the pantheon of the Web's most noteworthy busts came on July 14, 2008. At 2 a.m. that day, an agitated Amir Khan, an executive at hedge fund 3V Capital Management, SpiralFrog's main financial backer, e-mailed several fellow board members at the pioneering ad-supported music service.

Khan was frustrated by SpiralFrog's marketing efforts. In one case, the start-up spent $300,000 to host a video from pop singer Alicia Keys that managers claimed would draw … Read more

Update: To note that SpiralFrog users did not purchase music.

Controversy trailed SpiralFrog while it existed and continues to hound the company, even after closing down.

Some shareholders of SpiralFrog, the ad-supported music download store that shuttered its site on March 19, are unhappy with how the company's assets are being sold. Separately, several site users have complained that they weren't warned they could lose their music if the site closed down.

New York-based SpiralFrog offered free downloads to users who agreed to be served advertisements with their songs. They never purchased the music outright and conditions of … Read more

SpiralFrog met its end just days ago, and already, operators of other ad-supported music services are rushing to put distance between their business models and that of the doomed site.

"The concept was good, but the management, board (not all), and execution were poor," wrote Robin Kent, the former CEO of SpiralFrog who went to work as an adviser to Qtrax, one of SpiralFrog's competitors. "It was obvious to anyone...it wouldn't survive."

What might encourage supporters to jump to the defense of ad-supported music services, which don't charge users to listen to … Read more