When the Sprial Frog relationship with Universal was announced, I was tentatively intrigued and waited for the catch to come out. This is in spite of the fact that I can't think of any artists on major labels that I give a hoot about. Once the first sketchy details were out about having to watch ads, it sounded like a job for Mechanical Turk — I can have a remote human watch the ads on my behalf for a nominal fee. The idea had a certain impish appeal in that I'm certain that the advertisers wouldn't want their demographic to be people somewhere in the world who'd sit through an ad for a nickel, but it was all mooted when it the details of Spiral Frog's plans for regressive DRM came out. I'm going to have to think about other opportunities where MechTurk could provide an acceptable-cost route around other on-line annoyances.
Now, as for the obsession with DRM,...
Consumer: (in raspy falsetto) I'd like to download some music, but I don't like DRM.
Waiter: (earnestly) Well, we've got some Same-Old-Same-Old; that's got DRM, ads, music, and DRM. That's not much DRM.
Consumer: (angrily) I don't like DRM!
Chorus of Record Labels: DRM DRM DRM, D-R-M D-R-M...
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