we7 tops UK music site chart… with major caveats
UK streaming music firm we7 is understandably chuffed about being ranked first in Experian Hitwise’s chart of the most popular UK music sites based on pageviews. CEO Steve Purdham describes it as a “significant milestone”.
Our first reaction is congratulations. we7 has worked hard in the last year to refine its service and forge partnerships to promote it, and its top ranking reflects this. It clearly sets some store by the Hitwise rankings, as back in May, we7 claimed to be the fastest growing UK music site according to Hitwise’s data.
But that’s where our reservations begin. Just how useful is Hitwise’s chart really? Here’s the top 10 from the latest chart, as supplied to us by we7:
1. We7 (6.02% share)
2. Last.fm (5.9%)
3. Grooveshark (5.26%)
4. Ultimate Guitar Archive (4.97%)
5. BBC Radio 1 (3.67%)
6. miastomuzyki.pl (2.49%)
7. MetroLyrics (2.03%)
8. VampireFreaks.com (1.99%)
9. Discogs (1.4%)
10. NME.com (1.21%)
Where do we start? The chart only covers pageviews on music websites, which is why there’s no Spotify (desktop client), YouTube and MySpace (presumably classed as video and social networking sites respectively by Hitwise.
So the chart isn’t really reflecting which online services Brits are using to listen to music. Yet we’ve already spotted several stories based on we7’s announcement taking the line ‘we7 beats Spotify in the UK’ – a claim that has no basis in this particular data whatsoever.
Second, VampireFreaks? A site devoted to “Gothic Industrial Culture” that seems to be as much about Halloween costumes as music. Not to knock that site, but shouldn’t it be in the social networking category too? It doesn’t give us confidence in the chart.
None of this is to knock we7, which as we’ve said has grown impressively in the last year. But when it comes to assessing how UK consumers are really accessing music online, there’s surely a better metric to trumpet than this Hitwise chart. we7 v Last.fm v MySpace v Spotify v YouTube would be a far more interesting comparison, if only the data were available to make it.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
[...] 1 votes vote we7 tops UK music site chart… with major caveats UK streaming music firm we7 is understandably chuffed about being ranked first in Experian [...]
October 7th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Well up to a point chaps…..and first of all many thanks for the kind words for the efforts of the we7 team. the site is pretty awesome.
Hitwise is important, of course, because it is a totally independent measure of page views. The reason ‘page views’ as a metric is so important is firstly that high ‘page views’ shows high engagement with the product, fans finding new music and also rediscovering old favourites. And secondly because ‘page views’ generates saleable web inventory to help pay for the music for the long term. The key to success for the free service is the ratio of web advertising (revenue) to streams played (costs). That is why a web service will likely beat an internet application for free to air services. Audio advertising is catching on with brands and on we7 in particular, when advertisers combine short audio ads with web inventory, it has been shown to be very effective. It may even be a rival for video advertising on the web in its effectiveness on ‘task oriented’ sites like we7 for some brands. Web inventory is therefore important not just as a measure of current usage of the product but perhaps more importantly to enable we7 to build a sustainable ‘free to air’ service that ensures bands get paid and fans who cant or won’t pay (and they are still the majority who you probably can’t reach just by changing how you pay from ‘buy’ to ‘rent’) will get the music they want, legally.
John Taysom
October 8th, 2009 at 11:35 am
[...] problema é que os dados revelados agora apenas abrangem pageviews registados em sites de música. Daí a inexplicável ausência da Spotify, cujo serviço [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
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October 8th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
[...] all right, thank you, at least in popularity: according to Hitwise, the web measurement service, last week it had 2.3m page [...]
October 12th, 2009 at 8:47 am
[...] all right, thank you, at least in popularity: according to Hitwise, the web measurement service, last week it had 2.3m page views.But Spotify, Purdham recognises, has done an excellent PR job. And he [...]