From Leona, to Take That, to The Hoosiers - "Listen Now" FREE at We7.com

Whether it's Take That, Mark Ronson, The Hoosiers or Leona Lewis that tickles your fancy, today is great news for all music fans because tracks from all of these artists, plus lots more, are available to be selected and listened to immediately for FREE at We7.com.

The new "on demand" music service, launched today at We7.com, gives fans access to over 500,000 tracks from Sony BMG and a wide variety of independent artists and labels, legally, safely and in a format they want.

Music fans can "listen now" to the music they want for free thanks to We7's unique model which grafts a short audio advert onto the front of each track.

Unlike illegal file sharing sites, the artist and record label will get paid every time music fans listen to the track from the revenue generated by advertising. This provides a viable solution to music piracy and a win-win situation for music fans and artists alike.

In addition, tens of thousands of music tracks can be downloaded to be 'listened to later' on their iPod or MP3 player for free with the attached advert, which can be removed after a set number of listens, or an amount of elapsed time.

If fans don't like ads they can alternatively buy it via We7 without the advert, giving consumers the choice to listen to music in the way they want it.

Music sharing with your best friends is encouraged at We7 as every play is paid for.

Steve Purdham, co-founder and CEO of We7 comments: "To date music fans have really only had two choices to get the music how they want it - buy or steal. Today we're changing that by putting the fans and artists first to deliver a fresh new alternative. Simply fans get the music they want and now have the choice of paying with their money or paying with a small amount of their time. So everybody is happy".

Jack Horner, co-Founder and Creative Director, FRUKT adds, "We7 is pushing the boundaries of music delivery to give fans greater access to the music they love whilst ensuring the artists get paid fairly too. Innovative approaches to the monitising of music in this time of change for the traditional music business deserve much praise and support. A major label partnership is a very exciting step forward in delivering a more mainstream offering to music fans."

Initially, not all the tracks will be available to listen to in all the formats but We7 will continue to work with the music industry to break down the barriers to bring even greater choice to users in the coming months.

Comments

[David Muir]

I am hugely impressed by the ever expanding catalogue of music available on We7 and I've been doing my best to spread the news, e.g. Totally Free! - http://edcompblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/totally-free.html The streaming service is great but I hope you'll be able to make more downloadable too. In answer to a previous comment on the Coming soon on We7... Music how you want it! - http://blogs.we7.com/weblog/2008/04/we7-continues-t.html post, you said:

"The answer is that it is our aim to make all of our catalog available for ad funded download. To do that we have to show that we can generate enough advertising revenue to cover the cost."

My question therefore is, how can We7 users help you convince Sony that they will make money from downloads?

Thanks again for a brilliant service.

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi David,

Thanks for your comment. The main things you can do to help you already are doing! We need lots and lots of users and we need them to use the site as much as possible. The more people we have and the more they use the site the more money we can generate from advertising to pay the artists.

1 further thing users can do to help is to answer the questions we occasionally ask when they log in. This allows us to target the advertising and therefore charge the advertisers more. It is these high rates we need to achieve to prove we can cover the cost of downloads. The targeted advertising has the additional benefit of being better for the the users as well as it is more relevant and therefore less intrusive.