SpiralFrog is a new music download website which will offer Universal Music Group’s massive catalogue available for legal downloading in the US and Canada.

The company has signed a deal with Universal Music Group to allow free downloads of UMG”s entire artist line-up, saying it can offer the music for free as the site will be supported by advertising. SpiralFrog will launch in beta later this year and will certainly give the iTunes service a run for its money.

SpiralFrog CEO Robin Kent said the new service will offer several key benefits over pirated music – such as legal music files without viruses or spyware in a controlled client-server architecture, quick downloading and a massive range of songs and videos by major artists.

“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling. SpiralFrog will offer those consumers a better experience and environment than they can get from any pirate site,” Kent said.

“Piracy continues to be one of the biggest issues facing the music industry where illegal file sharing and unauthorized CD burning are the prime means of music piracy. Digital rights protection will help us combat piracy and provide peace of mind for the record labels and the artists,” Kent added.

Kent said in a statement that the company’s research revealed consumers are happy to ‘pay’ for their content by watching non-intrusive, contextually-relevant, targeted advertising in an online entertainment environment where advertising is already part of the overall experience.

“SpiralFrog’s target audience – people between the ages of 13 and 34 – is an advertiser’s dream. This is the core audience we will attract by building a music-centric experience and destination that is second to none, legally delivering what the majority of users want – content they pay for only with their time. It’s content that advertisers are willing to pay for on their behalf,” Kent added.

See: www.spiralfrog.com