Backed by musician Peter Gabriel, British We7 is offering consumers free songs tagged with 10-second advertisements, which are played before the music track starts. Four weeks after downloading, We7 gives the user the option of downloading an ad-free, DRM-free version. Which makes for free music without piracy. We7 is currently in beta and hasn't signed up any major labels. The venture is currently working with independent record labels, featuring artists such as Youssou N'Dour, the Dave Matthews Band and Hall & Oates. (A similar service is SpiralFrog, scheduled to launch in Canada and the US later this year.)
In theory, it's a win-win-win: consumers get free songs without pangs of guilt for stealing from artists, artists are paid for their music, and advertisers get the opportunity to "Intimately whisper into the ears of their targeted audience like never before", as We7 puts it. To make the concept work, We7 will need to sign up more top artists and hot up-and-coming ones. Still, it's yet another interesting example of what our sister site trendwatching.com dubbed free love, the practice of offering consumers free products and services, sponsored by advertising. Related free love concepts include free snail mail, free photocopies for students and free phone calls for teenagers.
Website: www.we7.com
Contact: info@we7.com
Spotted by: Bill McMahon
Don´t míss to check out www.yoursongs.se. You get ad free new mp3 music directly to your mobile phone courtesy of both major and indie labels
These guys have just copied the idea that loadtheshow.com came up with!
wow - cool idea.. but im from South Africa and theres there's a cooler site loadtheshow.com doing the same but BETTER - free downloads, paid artists and NO advert attached!! best deal - as a consumer we're bombarded with SO MUCH advertising - the last place I want to hear an ad is when im trying to chill and listen to my tunes! loadtheshow.com also features the best local bands.. go to loadtheshow.com to get free downloads! as easy as 1,2,3...
Well yes but unlike loadtheshow.com, this has a much bigger potential, i.e. no limit on downloads per day, real possibility of signing up major record labels. I will give We7 a bigger chance of hitting it big.
Like it. Really like it!
Mark Bowness
We7 starts charging for downloads once the sponsored ones are used up, loadtheshow only offers free downloads...
The driving principle behind We7 is that the downloads are free, and advertisers pay the artists/companies.
However there is the option to pay for downloads if you dont want the ad.
If you accept the free download coupled with the ad (and over time ads will increasingly be tailored to those brands acceptable to you), you can download tracks for free....and after a certain period...the site mentions 4 weeks....you can download it for nothing without the ads.
The files are mp3 with no DRM restrictions.
Sounds cool to me.
as a consumer we're bombarded with SO MUCH advertising - the last place I want to hear an ad is when im trying to chill and listen to my tunes!
I know what you're saying, Gillian, but the point is that they're not your tunes yet! They're offering the chance to listen to THEIR tunes, and the catch is that you have to listen to an ad as well.
Free downloads are all very well, but bands still have to pay their rent!
Dont like this.
Think about when between every single song in your ipod you have a 10 second advertising. I wouldn't like that at all.
Hi I'm Steve the CEO of We7, just following some great comments. A Couple of things the music world on the Internet is split into Buy or Steal with most the music downloaded being illegally acquired. That cannot be good for anyone long term so We7 and others are introducing an alternative so now the world is Buy, Ad Funded Subsidised, Ad funded Free or Steal.
This choice tries to let everyone in the chain win. If you don't like ads then buy if you don't mind them for a short time then get them free from people like We7. (We don't start charging when the sponsored ones get used up, we Pay the rights owner in that situation, you still get free but may get a We7 ad)
Getting music is key and we are working on that we have alrady signed some great partnerships with people like V2 and mTunes and we will be announcing more as fast as we can.
Enjoy
Steve
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