Free music for all? :: Wessex Scene Online

Free music for all?

9th March 2008
Pete Bryant

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The growing number of consumers who favour downloading to buying CD’s could soon be given an alternative.

Musician and entrepreneur, Peter Gabriel, has launched a website that allows users to legally download music for free whilst ensuring the artist receives payment for their work.

The site, We7.com, aims to eliminate piracy and it is believed that the new system will be a huge success. Whenever an mp3 or video is downloaded from the website a small fee is paid to the artist.

The negative side to this seemingly ideal system is that the money to do this is generated through advertising, with an advert of roughly 10 seconds grafted onto the beginning of each track. Gabriel commented: "We7 is one way to keep music free for consumers whilst maintaining some income for artists and content owners."

The launch follows reports last year that UK record labels were set to sue consumers who share music online. This would follow in the footsteps of US labels, who last year sued over 200 consumers, including a 12 year old girl who was forced to pay a $2,000 fine. The music industry is keen to make it clear that downloading is illegal, and that they will not shy away from handing out punishments.

Some users claim that the adverts are too intrusive and won’t convince consumers to change their downloading habits, but We7 argues that their adverts will be relevant to the listener and sound similar to a radio broadcast. Site users are also given the option of removing the adverts from 20 of their downloaded tracks each month, leaving them with ad-free songs.

We7 reported last week that they had surpassed one million downloads. The millionth user received a free iPod touch and, somewhat ironically, a signed CD. The catalogue of songs available on the website has risen from 80,000 to over 500,000 since May 2007, however the majority of these are unsigned bands. The site also now boasts 90,000 users.

Despite sales of CD albums continuing to rise in the UK, sales of singles have halved since 1999. Record labels are worried that album sales will soon be hit as more and more people use broadband internet.

It is yet to be seen if We7.com will be the answer to the problem, but with many companies and investors signing up to the service, it represents a significant development in the way we obtain music.