Sunday, October 19, 2008

We7 backs away

Early on in the blog I recommended We7 as a place to look for free music. The model they used was free downloads with an advert at the beginning (about 10 seconds) and after 28 days you could download an add free version. At the time I suggested that the ad-model could easily be circumvented. They moved to include a streaming option a while ago.

However, in some recent 'Great news!' from the site. After commenting on more music being available and a new dsign, as a third point they indicate there will be no more ad-free downloads, and that downloading anyway will be limited to the UK. Streaming is still available - and they have expanded their roster (but they have also decreased it: the ELP bootlegs are no longer available, nor the Vidna Obmana). But there are other streaming sites, and a large population (eg me) who don't want to stream.

Anyway, it was a bold experiment and fun while it lasted.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

dissapointed that they've done that. there are some new legal services coming along though. I didn't like the adverts being on the music. I like to download too. There is a new UK website that i heard about that is trying the free download plan. wonder what it will be like.

Anonymous said...

I just found it again. It's called kerchoonz.com

Anonymous said...

Hi
We havent given up on the 'experiment' but there are external challenges that we face.(and all the other music delivery companies).

Behind the scenes the difficulties with collection societies and geographical licensing make things 'interesting'.

We keep on pushing the boundaries and you will see We7 increase in strength.

For now thanks for everyones support and keep on checking us out

Cheers
Steve
CEO We7
www.we7.com

Unknown said...

Hi
Had a look at Kerchoonz - hard to comment at this stage as all they are is a marketting page- sign up and tell 3 mates, without any real idea about what sort of music.
And thanks to We7 for noticing my blog! I can only start to guess at the complexities of trying to run something like that international (note Amazon is still only selling music in the US and it took a while for iTunes store to reach the antipodes). It was a brave move to start globally, which was much appreciated.

Unknown said...

Though, this article on Kerchoonz
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.makers/browse_thread/thread/516e3415e421a551/958531654f2e28c3?lnk=raot&pli=1
suggests it is up and running - so perhaps another regional operation. Like Rhapsody and some others