We7 has changed!

Great news! As we gear up to our full launch in November, we are making some significant changes on We7. So here is an update on what you can expect over the coming weeks…

Firstly, there will be loads more great music. We are currently signing more labels than ever before, such as EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG, PIAS, The Orchard, Pinnacle and INgrooves. This means more great music to listen to for free. We are uploading as many as 50,000 tracks a day, with more to come. So keep coming back and see what's new, as we build our "celestial jukebox".

Secondly, we have a great new design. You will see a cleaner, more functional site, making it easier for you to find the music you want. The new search facility is outstanding, and we have added new functionality to make sharing and blogging our music easier. There is also a new persistent music player at the top of each page, which means that as you browse around We7, your music continues to play.

Thirdly, as we shift the focus to free streaming rather than free downloading (at least for now), adverts on downloads will no longer be removable after 28 days. Also, outside the UK, we will be suspending the ability to download free tracks with adverts. There are many reasons as to why we have taken these steps but the main one is simple economics, as we strive to focus upon the UK to build and deliver an outstanding music experience.

Our dream is to eventually give you the choice to stream or download any music you want, for free. The barriers are many, but we are confident that we eventually deliver on our dream, even though it may be in small patient steps.

Fourthly, thanks to you we won the Best Digital Music Service at the 2008 BT Digital Music Awards - just brilliant, thanks for everything and keep telling your friends about us.

And finally, did we mention that there will be MORE MUSIC for you to choose from? So listen to all the music you want free, share it with your friends (legally), and buy what you love in glorious mp3 format!

Cheers,

The We7 team

Comments

[Jeff]

"outside the UK, we will be suspending the ability to download free tracks with adverts."

Oh... as a Canadian who has loved using your site since discovering it early this year, this news gets a big thumbs down from me. I listen to the vast majority of my music at work where I have no internet connection; without the ability to download songs, I doubt I will be getting much use out of this site anymore.

I hope that you can find a way to bring back free downloads soon, as they were what really enabled We7 to stand out from the multitude of other sites which allow music to be streamed.

[Simon]

Would have appreciated a chance to use up my 20 downloads. It seems very cavalier to just cancel downloads without warning. I expect there will be a significant number of users who feel a little cheated.

[Akshay]

Well as a user from outside the UK the disabling of Ad-supported downloads is the final nail in the coffin. What we7 doesn't seem to realize is that there is a very-very large audience who do not have access to full fledged broadband to stream the music all the time. Also i will no longer be able to load up my ipod with music from ur site.
All those who have full fledged broadband and will use ur site for streaming will switch to other online radios at a drop of a hat [if not today, tomorrow] , nice business strategy!

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hey guys,

We appreciate your comments. We really hope and aim to make ad funded downloads work with all music both in and outside of the UK. Unfortunately we can't earn enough from advertising to cover the costs that we have to pay to music industry at the moment. This is especially true outside of the UK where we don't have sales guys (or gals).

Anyone who had purchased credits (as opposed to the free ones you get each month) is either receiving a refund or 4 times the amount in balance to spend how they like - its up to them.

Akshay, we do realize there is a large audience who don't have access to broadband or just want music on the move. Bear with us over the next year as we strive to make the economics of the model work.

Any further questions or comments are appreciated.

[Soulsupastarr]

We7 offering free ad-supported music is what makes it stand out in comparison to other similar services which in contrast, just offer the availability to listen to music for free on-demand. Focusing more on the ad-supported music downloads would have, in my opinion, been a more viable idea as it’s the main unique selling point (USP) of the service. As a UK resident I’m assuming that there won’t be any changes regarding the feature to download ad-supported music. I was also wondering if We7 will adding more variety of music available to download too?. This facility on We7 has introduced me to new artists/groups who I wouldn’t have known about before and also being able to download songs/albums to listen too offline has made it easier to deal with the limitations of not having high speed broadband as streaming music to listen too does use up a lot of bandwidth which mostly all ISP‘s limit for their users. Also, the 20 free credits each month and suggesting We7 to friends/family were both good ideas & good incentives too for users of We7, so it's kinda a shame that those ideas have been discontinued.

I would think that once We7 have focused on constructing a business model which is successful for the UK, it could be possible to offer ad-supported music for free internationally and one way to provide this service is to have targeted advertising from companies which are region-specific, for example a US company advertising their product/service before the start of each ad-supported song for a user of We7 in the US.

Overall, I like the new design for We7 and the ability to listen to a song when searching for music or reading a blog etc. is a good feature too. At first I had some difficulty navigating the website and some artists pages don't seem to load but apart from that the new look to the website is good. I suggested this in another blog, but the ability to know how many free ad-supported songs you have remaining for each day/week would be another useful addition, as would a page(s) detailing all the news music/albums added each day/week that is available to listen to/download.

[webdrifter]

I can receive streaming radio from lots of sites on the internet.The advantage of we7 was the free downloads and I do not think I am alone in saying I probably will stop using the site.I am not impressed.

[aphexbr]

Sorry guys, the only thing that made me interested in the site in the first place was downloads. I have no interest in streaming, nor any use for it.

Good luck for the future, but you've lost a member.

[bugmenot2]

The FAQ says the free ad-free download credits were stopped due to lack of interest, which is a real shame because I used it regularly. Just because something isn't used frequently doesn't mean it's useless - perhaps it should have been better promoted. Anyway, the really frustrating thing for me is that I had a list of awesome tracks that I was waiting to download, and now the list is no longer accessible, I'll never know what their names were. I just wish I could get that list back.

[bugmenot2]

Oh, and how are we supposed to rate tracks and albums now? I hope that ability hasn't been restricted to 'special' people.

[kalyons]

Well, as a member from near the beginning, I would have appreciated some warning of this -- especially since I had 20 credits waiting to be used for a specific album ... today.

I'll probably still be dropping by, until stateside users get dumped altogether, but I'm not happy with the way this was handled.

[Sal]

I prophecy desaster: No downloads outside the UK, more streaming (and most of the streaming unavailable outside the UK): Cutting out the non-UK-users seems to me the beginning of the end of we7.com. There are many streaming-sites and many of the are well rooted in the web-community ... and international.
Bye bye, we7.com - you've missed to win international advertising partners. Somebody else will come and take over your good idea.

[anose]

economics are what they are. If you guys were losing money on free DLs, so be it. I'm sorry it didn't work out. My issue is that you've made this decision without warning. A grace period would have thoughtful. No way to treat customers, even freeloaders like me.

[groeni]

How can i remove my profile at we7 ?

[mickgred]

It's sad that some of we7's ideas haven't worked out. I thought the 20 free credits for ad-free downloads after 28 days was a brilliant idea and it encouraged me to buy more credits and purchase music I wouldn't have paid 79p a track for. Like others who have commented I'm not really all that interested in streaming.

The changeover did come with some warning but the original email about it promised a follow-up email before the changes were implemented and I didn't receive anything. I'm glad I will be receiving some credit for the unused credits I've purchased but a) it wasn't clear that unused free credits would simply be lost and that's annoying because I could have used them and b) I can't see how I go about choosing between a refund or 4xcredits (which is the option I'd like). Can you point me in the right direction?

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hey mickgred,

We think that the credits idea is good as well! We have to be pragmatic in this environment and that means focussing on the UK to make the model work. We would love to be able to offer all content for ad funded download. After we make that work in the UK then we can extend to other countries.

In the next day or 2 we will be adding the balance on. If you prefer a refund of the credits just drop me a mail (gareth at we7 dot com)

[Gareth Reakes, CTO We7]

Hi anose,

send a mail to info at we7 dot com. We will remove your account immediately.

[Nguyen Hy Lap]

I've just read through the comments and, not surprisingly, it's a steady stream of negative comments. When it started up I remember Peter Gabriel saying we7 would revolutionise music, breaking away from the models established by those who want the best of the digital age while clutching at the marketing models of the vinyl age. You did it for a while but, ironically, you have now gone the way of unimaginative mainstream. As others have said, what you now offer we can get plenty of places. Especially for those of us outside the UK, once we stop dropping in, we'll probably stay away for good. Users will be on the look out for the next big innovator - and they'll go there.

[Another option]

Check out http://www.rcrdlbl.com if you want free downloads that are accessible from anywhere in the world.

[festus]

Marketing people never cease to amaze me. Look at the spin that is put on this. "Great News"? Quite the opposite - I think we7 should be apologizing to its users. As others have clearly stated, the availability of free downloads is what set we7 apart. I'm sorry that the economics didn't allow that model to be sustainable; however, without that feature, we7 has become just another streaming service. I wish we7 the best of luck but I'm afraid they will be losing a large share of their audience.

[falco75]

As usual the old business model has won once again, this is not a great news of course because now We7 is a more traditional music site and I think that to suspend the ability to download music outside UK is like a tsunami that will bring only destruction and desolation in the world of digital music...

[ammo_aj]

Now I read a few of the previous comments and the responses to those comments by WE7.I see an arguement from both sides before coming to a conclusion. So here it is; I see where We7 is coming from with respects to the economics side of it. Clearly something had to be done. However, We7, I am going to agree with the others in saying that you have now fallen off the radar grid, flying solo, and into the deep, dark abys that is MUSIC SITES.Majority of us chose this site because it seemed to have catered to all walks of life,the have's and the have-not's. Open up to a stark reality, the HAVE-NOT'S are the MAJORITY. Proper internet access is not the NORM, even while typing this I hope the connection holds up, STREAMING SUCKS TO THE HIGHEST RECESSES OF HELL!!!!!!! for the majority of us. We7 could have taken a different approach to include creating means for persons who download to donate to the cause, ANYTHING but this. You have lost that opportunity to take hold of the MARKET SHARE, setting you apart from the rest. Three weeks ago you were, UNDISPUTABLY, the best. NOW?.....DON'T BE LIKE THE REST!...We all love We7

[jeremy_k]

I am not surprised at the change and agree streaming is not a viable option for many people. But I wondered how oong the ad-attached model would work well anyway - while the tracks were MP3 it was pretty easy to edit out the ads (if they are at the beginning) and ones at the end would be jumped over. As far as the new look goes, I won't be spending any time with it to find out.

[Hugh H]

I stopped using the site months ago because I found it impossible to even work out which songs could be downloaded, it all suddenly became in the main 'mainstream act' streaming. It's a shame but good luck anyway.

[Hugh H]

I stopped using the site months ago because I found it impossible to even work out which songs could be downloaded, it all suddenly became in the main 'mainstream act' streaming. It's a shame but good luck anyway.

[Zeptepi]

Very disappointed with this. As others have said, it was the free downloads that enabled you to standout from the crowd. Now it seems we7 will be just another tool of the major labels, just like myspace has now become. Why would I want to stream music anyway, other than to sample it before buying/downloading? Seems a very inconvenient way to listen...

My band has had some great exposure thanks to we7, but we're based in Australia, so we can no longer promote we7 as the site to download our music for free. So we'll have to go elsewhere. Not that we'll be missed with all your new major label deals eh?

Great news my arse.