« Sony Sacrifices Goat At Game Launch | Main | Apple Promises To Be A Greener Apple »
WE7 Promises ‘Free’ Music Downloads
In order to avail of this so-called freebie from WE7, you have to listen
to an ad before the track plays. The company claimed that ad-funded music
downloads ensures that artists get paid and people get legal downloads without
digging into their pockets.
WE7, being fronted by Peter Gabriel, 
claims that the ads attached to
singles or albums will are not permanent and after some time, users can
requests the track ad-free. However, there’s no indication of how long
listeners will have to endure the ad versions first. There will also be an
option to buy the tracks without the ads, but then that’s hardly revolutionary.
Peter Gabriel commented: “We7 provides artists - even across the more
experimental or minority genres - with the opportunity to build a new source of
income from their music. Ad funded downloads are the way to provide free music
to the consumer without depriving musicians of their livelihood.”
The service goes live next month.
This approach was tried in the early days of the Internet, with ISPs
offering ‘free’ surfing in exchange for displaying ads on your desktop. It
failed miserably then and I can’t see WE7’s ad-fuelled freebies doing much better. The download space is
crowded enough as it is.
Posted by Martin Lynch on May 2, 2007 in Active Home, Music, Web/Tech | Permalink
