The music industry is in desperate need of new models and an interesting one got some financial support today. We7 announced today that it's raised $6 million from Peter Gabriel and Spark Ventures.
The UK site offers DRM-free MP3 downloads with super-short ads preceding each song - for the first 4 weeks after download. Once a month you can select 20 tracks to remove the ad clips from, any additional ad removal will cost 20 pence (about 39 cents) per song.
Downloads are easy, right now all the songs I listened to had We7 promos instead of commercial ads. It's a solid little site - but what we're looking for in any music acquisition experience is the shortest path from discovery to rock.
So again, here's how the routine works: you either pay for songs or download them for free, with free downloads having a short ad before each song - for the first 4 weeks after download. After 4 weeks you can select 20 songs (presumably that you got a month ago) to remove ads for for free - and any other songs you want to remove ads from will cost you 20 pence (about 39 cents).
I gave We7 the girlfriend test - my girlfriend is very smart but she does not get as excited about tech for its own sake as I do. She said, and I think many people will likely agree, that this model is too complicated. Also, though it's not technically feasible with truly portable music, an ad played every 5 to 10 tracks would also be much more acceptable for consumers than an ad between every song. That's something that a whole lot of people are going to reject, violently. In other words, this is still too intrusive. In our house we listen to Pandora, we buy DRM-free tracks from Amazon MP3 and we find MP3 files shooting out the behinds of angels (but I swear we do pay out the nose for concert tickets!).Though interest was piqued by We7 - it's not enough to make us change our current habits.
None the less, this kicks the snot out of Spiral Frog - a company burning through money with a plan to require users to view advertisements in order to listen to DRM laden major label music. There's ads everywhere, account creation is required and the whole thing feels insulting and burdonsome to me. We7 isn't entirely different, but it's certainly trying.
Somebody, someday, is going to find a good way to make money on music again - even though the internet is wild and free. For now, the Peter Gabriel-backed video project Witness is still far cooler.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: We7: Getting Closer to a Workable Model for Free Music Downloads.
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I agree completely. I think this model is a step in the right direction because it is innovative. It's far from perfect, so let's wait and see what else they have in stored.
Posted by: Brant Tedeschi | January 22, 2008 12:00 AMGreat initiative, but as the article points out, this model is indeed a bit complicated for the average user.
I'm sure there will be more steps in this direction, because the traditional charging methods for music don't suit the Internet.
Eyal
Posted by: Eyal | January 22, 2008 3:56 AMhttp://www.sutree.com
Not sure how this model "kicks the snot" out of anything. It is too complicated and burdensome for the user. I don't know anyone who has the time or the patience to keep track of when and what to pay for. I give it the thumbs down. At least SpiralFrog is easy - and there is no forced listening as there is in We7.
Posted by: Steve Lusso | January 22, 2008 8:44 AMI wish I could comment on the complexity of it all, but after about 30 minutes of looking for ANY song I might want to download, (and I did find quite a few, being somewhat old and classic myself), none of the songs I wanted were available in my area (USA).
Sigh... good thing I still have my LPs...
Jon
Posted by: Jon | January 22, 2008 1:09 PMThis is a very fascinating concept. As with any new idea, I'm sure there will be issues but I they are definitely thinking in the right direction. Thanks for the link.
Posted by: Matthew Griffin | January 22, 2008 2:05 PMHi, my name is Gareth Reakes and I am the CTO at We7. Thanks for all the feedback. We have been looking at ways of making the process of ad free tracks simpler for some time. The complexity is because we don't use DRM. We could have just removed the ad if we were using a proprietary format but that is not possible with MP3 as users can do what they want with with the file and it never talks back to our servers. Next month we are releasing a beta of a download manager for iTunes on windows. This has some of the nice features you would expect such as being able to import multiple songs that you download in a zip automatically but also it gives you a tab which shows you which of your tracks are now available ad free. To get that track you just click download and the manager will go and get it and replace it in your library without you doing anything. As soon as we get some user feedback on the feature set we will extend the download manager to to Mac and windows media player etc. If anyone would like to participate in the beta, or has any more suggestions, feel free to drop me a mail (gareth at we7 dot com).
Posted by: Gareth Reakes | January 25, 2008 1:12 AM