Music Ally

we7 has announced a partnership with Yahoo that will see the latter selling display advertising on we7’s music site – its first such deal with an external company.

Details on how the partnership will work exactly – not to mention the terms of the deal – are thin on the ground. Yahoo’s business development and commercial relations director Phil Macauley resorts to branding buzzwords when explaining the deal’s potential: “The deal will allow us to leverage Yahoo!’s unique combination of Science – our insights and knowledge, Art – Yahoo!’s ability to design creative ad solutions and Scale – the wide consumer reach this deal will enable.”

However, the implication is that the deal will help we7 to get more big brands on board – something which will presumably be welcomed by its label partners. “We believe that this partnership will offer large impact campaigns to brands, eventually making us one of the top five music destinations in the UK,” says CEO Steve Purdham.

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we7 will launch its Premium Plus music subscription service on 1st March, after Apple approved its iPhone app. The company will charge £9.99 a month for the service – matching Spotify – which will give unlimited streaming on PC and iPhone, with an offline mode for the iPhone app allowing playlists to be stored on the device.

“It’s a brilliant app and a game-changing way of consuming music,” CEO Steve Purdham tells Music Ally. “It’s outstanding to be able to create a playlist on your PC and instantly refresh your iPhone display to see it appear, then press the Off-line button to take all your favourite songs with you on the train, plane, car or just your mate’s house.”

iPhone won’t be the only smartphone supported by the service though. Purdham adds that apps for Android and BlackBerry handsets are on their way.

we7 boss Steve Purdham revealed on-stage at MidemNet that the streaming music firm will launch its premium offering on 1 February. Now the company has announced more details.

We7 Premium will offer unlimited streaming access to more than four million songs, including personal radio, playlists and sharing features, for £4.99 a month. It’ll have no ads, and there’s an introductory offer of £3.99 a month for the first 90 days.

Meanwhile, We7 Premium Plus will bundle in mobile access too, starting with iPhone and Android, with other smartphones to follow later this year. The apps will include a Spotify-esque offline mode to listen to playlists without a connection. We7 Premium Plus will cost £9.99 a month.

“The new premium services are about choice for the consumer,” says CEO Steve Purdham. “In the new digital music economy there is no single business model that fits all. That is why we give consumers the ability to listen to great music how they want, where they want and at a price they are prepared to pay.”

we7 CEO Steve Purdham confirmed that the company will introduce its subscription service on 1st February, during the Labels & Services panel session at MidemNet today.

It will cover both PC and mobile listening, with the latter putting it head to head with Spotify in the UK, which has already launched iPhone, Android and Symbian applications.

Purdham also said he remains confident that we7’s ad-supported business model can work in the long term, revealing that there 3.7 ad opportunities for every song a user listens to on the service.

“I believe we can get to the point where the actual advertising rates we get cover the costs of the music, at a rate where the music is valuable – not at a point where it’s a revenue share that’s so small, it’s not even worth talking about,” he said.

Finally, Purdham predicted that if Apple launches a cloud-based version of its iTunes Store, it’ll be through necessity. “With the cloud era hurtling towards you, you have to make that step,” he said.

For a full report of the session, check our liveblog on the Midem(Net) Blog.

UK-based music streaming service we7 has kicked off 2010 with a new look, including changes to the way its users can buy music downloads from the site.

It now offers a shopping cart, as well as the existing choice to add and store credit. “That means you can buy just one track if that’s what you want using a credit/debit card or PayPal,” says the internal email announcing the changes. All purchases remain eligible for the UK’s OCC chart, as before.

we7 says the change also reflects the back-end work that’s going into its upcoming subscription service, which is due to launch in Q1. Another change is that we7 has made its Radio feature available to all users, whether they’re logged in or not. Finally, the site now supports drag’n'drop playlist creation.

UK streaming music service we7 has revealed its most popular songs and artists of 2009, with Cheryl Cole’s Fight For This Love topping the former chart, and Lady Gaga heading the latter.

In fact, the most-played songs chart is dominated by urban and pop music, with no indie or rock artists making the top ten. An interesting trend that’s reflected in the top ten artists chart too. Both lists are published at the bottom of this post.

“The core of our user base loves to hear music they already know from the official chart and radio playlists, and the most played songs and artists of 2009 reflect this,” says senior VP of digital music Clive Gardiner. “At the same time, many we7 users want music that’s not so mainstream, and they play hundreds of thousands of other songs each week from indie, new and even unsigned artists, many following promotions and recommendations by we7’s music team.”

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Steve Purdham is CEO and founder investor of We7, the web-based ad-supported music streaming service. We talked to him for a feature in the latest Music Ally Report, which subscribers can read here – while non-subscribers can sign up for a free trial. The Q&A is after the jump.

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We7 has been open about its plans to launch an iPhone app for some time now, but TechCrunch Europe has nabbed first screenshots, along with details from the streaming music company about its plans for the release.

The site claims that the app will now launch in Q1 next year, and will be tied into We7’s new premium subscription service. The app has apparently been ready for a while now, but the company chose not to launch it as a purely ad-supported product, to avoid punitive royalty payments.

It’s certainly true that a decent iPhone (or any smartphone) app can create huge demand very quickly for a streaming music service. Pandora recently revealed that 24% of its users signed up from their phones, while Spotify has seen a surge in premium subscriptions since the launch of its iPhone and Android apps.

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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Okay, so the only place you’ll find the Fab Four’s recorded output available in digital form is still in The Beatles: Rock Band console game. However, UK streaming music service we7 has secured something of a coup with a playlist of live versions of Beatles tracks performed by Sir Paul McCartney.

The playlist includes Hey Jude, Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday, and can be streamed from the we7 website or embedded elsewhere (such as here – see above).

“The Beatles are everywhere today with the release of their newly remastered work and the launch of Beatles Rock Band – but to date, their catalogue has not been made available through any legal online music services,” says CEO Steve Purdham. “we7 listens to what our users want and as a result, we’re giving them the chance to listen to the best line up of classic Beatles tracks sung by Sir Paul himself. You just need to hit the play button!”

A canny move, indeed.