Saturday, September 06, 2008

We7

We7 is one of the start-ups trying to ride the online music evolution to a position of prominence. We7 lets users choose between buying recordings and downloading a free version with a 10-second ad (which expires after a month).

Rocker Peter Gabriel is one of the company’s partners. He says that 20 years ago the idea of tying a recording to an ad would have felt sacrilegious. “Today I have a different view: it’s a way to hold onto income for creators,” he says.




Royalties from downloads on We7 are paid to the record companies, which then pay a portion to the artists.

Even though it’s still in test, We7, which is based in Britain, has a licensing agreement already with one of the majors, Sony Music.

1 comment:

We7Steve said...

Thanks for your piece on We7. Just to update you on a couple of things, we actually now have agreements with three of the four major labels: Sony BMG, Warner and EMI and we have also this week signed a deal with [PIAS] Digital who work on behalf of 250+ independent labels. We expect to have their catalogue go live on our site later this year.

Steve Purdham
CEO - We7
www.we7.com