Music Ally

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:

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UK ad supported music site We7 has had some catching up to do recently, after Swedish upstart Spotify seemingly came from nowhere to become the darling of the legal music scene in Europe. So it’s interesting to see that in spite of Spotify’s huge growth, We7 is now the ninth most prominent music site according to Hitwise data.The company also claims to be “the fastest growing

ad-funded music website in the UK”  with “more than 600k unique users per month from the UK alone.”

For comparison: Spotify claimed a million UK users at the end of April, with earlier figures estimating a quarter of a million in February. That certainly makes Spotify, and not We7 the fastest growing ad funded music website in the UK. We 7 says it has seen 777% growth since the company’s launch in November 2007 with 502% growth since January.

It’s interesting to note that according to the Hitwise data, Spotify is languishing in 17th place on their chart. However this is because Spotify is a client-based service which means that users don’t have to visit their website to listen to the music. We7 users do have to visit www.we7.com to tune in.

Either way, though, the figures suggest that ad supported services are getting momentum in the UK and both services are moving towards the mainstream; which is where they need to be if they’re going to start sucking up the ad revenue.