The thing about useful stuff is

We7 - from Butterfly to Caterpillar Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Image representing we7 as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBaseI haven't logged in We7, the music site for over 9 months but was prompted to today when I received an email from the service advising that they were dramatically changing their model.

Their initial offering worked as follows

from their [very limited] catalogue you could legally download tracks for free
adverts were appended to the downloaded tracks which generated revenue for We7 which was shared with artists. The adverts automatically dissolved after 28 days or so many plays, leaving you with a pristine, legal download for free

The economics were simple - advertisers got to directly place their message at a targeted audience, assured that their ads couldn't be avoided; artists got paid; customers got free music with the minor inconvenience of hearing ads for a short time.

Evidently their dealings with the large record labels has forced a re-working of the service with the consequence that the site emphasis is now on free streaming of specific tracks you choose, with adverts appended.

Only a small proportion of tracks can now be downloaded, a capability restricted to UK users, and the ads are permanently appended as a pre-roll
You can save up to 60 tracks per playlist
Heavy emphasis is on encouraging you to buy tracks via iTunes or direct from We7
Massively expanded catalogue

Only a small proportion of tracks appear to be available for download and this seems to excludes recent releases from major artists.

This is a dramatic reversal of approach, which I think is a retrograde move, and whilst always being online to access streamed content is increasingly possible thanks to a combination of broadband and "all you can eat" mobile data plans, there remains a large proportion of the population who

are wedded to their mp3 players, most of which lack streaming capability [iPhone being a notable exception] and which We7's restyled offering no longer serves
don't have unlimited mobile data plans via which to stream music whilst on the move

Where I do see that We7 has the edge over services like Finetune, Pandora and Last.fm, which are similar streaming services, is that you actually get to select the songs that you want to listen to in full, rather than samples or "stations". Whilst We7 lacks the "discovery" element that something like Pandora offers, the ability to listen to any track for free online means that exploring new tracks and artists isn't impeded in anyway. Of course, if you live outside of the US, you are presently barred from directly listening to Pandora thanks to licensing restrictions.

If you spend much time online or have unlimited broadband access at home and enjoy listening to music, I think that We7 is definitely worth adding to your bookmarks. Meantime, I hope they will be able to find a way for their original model to re-emerge.

Labels: itunes, last.fm, music, pandora

posted by John Wilson @ 8:42 AM Permanent Link ,

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That's one bite of apple for you, five for them and four for me Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Mashable's quick guide to how the record pie slices up.

Out of every track sold for $.99, Apple receives $.35, the artist takes $.11, and the record label walks away with the lions share at $.53.

Labels: itunes, music

posted by John Wilson @ 7:40 PM Permanent Link ,

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Fiql - Your playlist in video Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fiql is a service that allows you to import your playlists from itunes, winamp, musicmatch, windows music player and rhapsody, then attempts to locate the accompanying music, lyrics and videos for the included tracks. You can do so many things on this site, including listen/watch the playlist of others. The site also provides blog facilities for users and "friending" options.

This a great service on so many levels.
- The site is very slick and the playlist/player is stylish
- Copyright issues appear to have been sidestepped since Fiql is finding content made available by others and playing that, in similar manner to Seeqpod
- Aside from friends, you can create/join groups of like minded folks
- Playlists can also be created on the fly as you peruse the choices of others
- You can comment on the music you hear throughout the site

Not sure what happens if the tunes in your playlist aren't available (other than they dont play!), but overall a really good site which I think I will be testing out in more depth.

Labels: itunes, music, Video

posted by John Wilson @ 10:43 PM Permanent Link ,

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Apple is watching you Monday, June 04, 2007

Just before you think about illegally sharing tracks that you bought from the iTunes Store, you should be aware that the tracks contain metadata with "the full name and account information, including e-mail address, of who bought them."

This is true whether they are DRM-free or not.

Labels: itunes, music

posted by John Wilson @ 7:32 PM Permanent Link ,

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