Coming soon on We7... Music how you want it!

A few weeks ago we announced a deal with Sony BMG that gave us access to their extensive catalogue of over 200,000 tracks. From 28^th April, We7 will feature your favourite artists – such as Mark Ronson, Bruce Springsteen and Leona Lewis. These superstars of music – along with many, many others – will be available to you to stream, for free and on demand!

Since our launch in May 2007, we’ve been working hard at signing up artists and labels of all sizes to give you, the user, a broad range of music to listen to.

With the support of the good people behind Sony BMG - and the artists they work with - plus many independent artists and labels already on the service, We7 will have hundreds of thousands of tracks available to users to access for free!

Full-length streaming will initially be available for the UK only. But we’re working hard to extend this into other countries around the world. Each streamed track will be preceded by a short audio ad (which helps pay for the track). If you like the track so much that you want to buy it, you will be able to do so from our own store, or from the iTunes store.

Free full length tracks, to stream and download on We7, are obviously great news for music fans, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams or download a song. Thanks to We7’s unique model – where artists and record labels share in revenue generated by advertising on We7 – artists and labels can finally monetize fans' growing desire to get music for free!

We7 is building a new future for music, a future where fans are able to discover new and exciting music the way they want to, and artists and labels get fairly paid for their creative work. Every day we will be adding thousands of new tracks increasing the choice of music available to you.

We7 aims to become your one stop shop for music, a place to go where you can download or stream for free with an ad, or pay for it without an ad.

So be a part of the We7 music revolution today!

Comments

[Jeff]

We7 has become one of my favourite sites on the Internet. I have a blog about free music, and a few months ago I posted an entry about We7:

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2008/01/free-music-resource-we7.html

This has consistently been one of the most popular entries on my blog, and at least a few people a week have been clicking on links to We7; hopefully some of them are in turn signing up for your site.

That entry was made mere days after I discovered We7, so I hadn't yet had a chance to download a lot of music from the site. When I was talking about the option to download ad-free tracks after having them for a month, I wrote, "20 files a month is not a huge number, but I can't see it really being a problem unless I start downloading huge amounts of music from We7." Well, it's nearly 3 months later, and I have been downloading so much music from We7 (at least a couple of albums a week, on average) that I have to pick and choose my ad-free downloads VERY carefully. :)

Thank you for maintaining such a great and unique site. I will continue to direct as many people as possible towards We7, and I look forward to discovering more great music on your site in the future.

[Usedlotofhell]

What about downloads? Will SonyBMG let us download in time as well? Or will we be limited to streaming online?

[Diego]

that's so good, I hope that many record labels agree with this opotunity. (Much better than the piracy)

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi Jeff,

Its our aim to make all the content ad funded download over time. To do that we have to prove that the artists make the same or more money this way than with the traditional models such as CD sales and pay for downloads.

[tenwiseman]

You could maybe look into supporting Logitech's/Slimdevices Squeezebox with this type of service (and some of the other internet appliance MP3 players out there). There are some services in the US that unfortunately had to close IP access from the UK - It could be great if We7 were made available over these devices, providing a service where a device linked website enabled played 'favorite' content to be bookmarked ready for the shopping trip to purchase downloads of newly discovered stuff. There are lot of UK users left in the lurch waiting for a Pandora replacement!

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi Tenwiseman,

We are currently investigating several of these services. We agree it would be great. We still have to work out how the music will be paid for. We would be able to do audio ads but not the banner advertising we can do on the site. Watch this space!

[Blissful]

I don't know if this has been suggested, but it'd be nice to see ads targeted towards certain genres. For instance, the loud radio-stryle ads are very off-putting when listening to an ambient album. It's fine for rock, etc. I know the point is to get you to pay attention to the ads, but I'm sure quieter, gentler ways of advertising can be found. Does that make sense or am I just asking for too much for free?

I love the new service! It's nice to be able to stream tracks on one click.

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi Blissful,

Thanks for your feedback. Our technology already supports this. The problem is creating all the different variants needed. The production costs can be quite high. As we gain more and more users this will make much more sense to do. Our eventual aim is to have an "audio matrix" of every advert and match the appropriate one to not just the genre, but the tempo of the music as well.

[PeterThatcher]

Look foreward to downloading pop artists (original)
e.g_Westlife,Rhanna,_b.f.n_pwt

[Laurielegit]

Call me cynical but i can't help but notice that there was no reply to the question about downloading SonyBMG music. you may not have had time but this is a question that i would love to know the answer to.

thanks

Laurielegit

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi Laurielegit,

Apologies, I thought I answered that question. 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. At the moment, with the Sony BMG content, we can do that with streaming but not quite for download. We hope to trial some more front line content for ad funded download in the coming months.

[Bawbag1]

Where are these new downloads? The search function does not bring any results for Mark Ronson or The Hoosier's that you say can be downloaded?

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi Bawbag1,

We currently only have the rights to serve the Sony BMG content in the UK. Our search engine only shows tracks you can have so you won't get any results for those artists outside the UK. Are you outside the UK?