AfterDawn: News

We7.com to offer free Sony BMG music

WE7.com has launched, and with it comes 500,000 free, ad-supported tracks from Sony BMG and a variety of independent artists.

As the company says, the site is a way for consumers to get the tracks they want "legally, safely and in a format they want".



We7's business model allows fans to listen to the music they want, completely free, but each tracks has a "short audio advert onto the front of each track."

The site also says that the artists and record labels will be paid every time the song is played on the site and that they will be paid from the revenue generated from advertising. We7 hopes the model will curb piracy and provide "a win-win situation for music fans and artists alike."

Additionally, 30,000 of the tracks can be downloaded and listened to later on portable media devices for free "with the attached advert, which can be removed after a set number of listens, or an amount of elapsed time."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Apr 2008 18:34

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• 4 comments

• iluvendo

  I'll believe it when I hear it.

  28.4.2008 21:01 #1

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by iluvendo: I'll believe it when I hear it.So go over and listen then haha

  28.4.2008 23:01 #2

• nobrainer

  Its a start, & it shows that the stuidos are starting to change, respect to sony.
  
  the only annoying thing is the pushing of the pop rubbish and the adds at the start of the free downloads but the quality is 192kbps and a quick run through a wave editor quickly removes the adds.
  
  Just make sure you use a spam email address and firefox with adblock plus, Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper and noScript to keep all the crapware off of your pc.
  
  *edit*
  
  and use an anonymous proxy to stop them grabbing you IP.
  

  The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above!
  The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.
  

  29.4.2008 06:28 #3

• emugamer

  I know how to curb piracy. Stop calling it piracy. Understand that people are social and like to share, and work that into your profit projections. Don't come crying that you only pocketed $5 billion instead of your projected $7 billion.
  
  But yeah, download your 30,000 songs, put your eye-patch on and run them through Soundforge or something to cut the ad, all while singing "16 men on a dead man's chest."
  
  192kbps is pretty decent.

  29.4.2008 12:10 #4