Profiled - We7 - Free, legal and safe music to share; plus the recent Lord Carter Digital Report
An Interview with Steve Purdham, Founder and CEO of We7
Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your full job title and role (what do you do) at We7?Steve Purdham (SP): Chief Executive Officer AKA the big cheese
SMP: Briefly, tell us about the service, what does it do?SP: We7 is a giant on-line jukebox where you can listen online to all the music you want for free, full songs full albums and buy MP3 downloads of the songs you love.
The music you listen to is free because of short audio ads (1-10 seconds) before the songs and the ads you see on the page while you are listening to music.
SMP: What made you start We7?
SP: I initially invested in the We7 idea in Jan 2007 with Peter Gabriel but it?s such an irrationally seductive idea I wanted to build and run the business too!
SMP: What was the most challenging part of building the service?SP: Would love the answer to that to be singular but at We7 the model is free music to consumers which is paid for by advertisers so we can pay for the music. That creates a series of challenges - you cannot get the music without paying, you cannot get the audience without music and you cannot get advertisers without an audience. So we had to break everything down.
Due to the massive tectonic shifts in the music industry it took us 18 months to get the right deals so our online jukebox could have the music people wanted. That has resulted in four minute songs under licence from all the major record labels and most of the leading independents. With the music, we launched the service in November 2008 and without hype just great music and a great service we already have almost one million UK users each month. We are now in the final phase, making it add up with focus on building and advertising sales operation to make the economics work.
SMP: Who are your target audience and why?SP: People who want to listen to music, so its 13-60 of all demographics in the UK, the generic audience can then be targeted and segmented dynamically to meet the needs of the advertiser
SMP: How did you initially attract users to your site / service, and how do you do it now?SP: Music is magnetic, have the music people want with a great service then people with come but you cannot leave it completely to fate. We have a social media strategy, in which we are building offsite communities across a multitude of social networks, and engaging and communicating with users within their own online environments. We purposely haven?t implemented any community features into We7, to keep the proposition clean and simple ? come and listen to music for free.
It has very much been word of mouth that has pulled in users and much of our strategy is to promote the legal sharing of music so we have integrated social media sharing tools within the site.
You can instantly post the music you are listening to on Twitter, host a playlist widget on your Bebo site, bookmark tracks/albums/playlists to Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us etc, plus you can simply copy and paste the share link into emails and instant messenger (IM) and embed the playlist widget into blogs and your own web pages.
We have also consolidated all our social network updates, RSS feeds and blog posts through the FriendFeed aggregator, allowing our users to use the stream of information to create their own customised feeds.
SEO and SEM plays an important part, as does key partnerships and affiliates with third parties, serving them with embeddable music for their websites and furthering our reach to consumers.
Something is working - 500,000 UK users in 100 days almost, almost one million now, plus another 750,000 users each month using our music sharing features.
SMP: What are your low moments of what you have been doing so far?SP: Initially it was the position and negativity of the music industry to new ideas, it was a natural position for them as they strove to understand the potential impacts of the digital world on music. To their credit once they did get their minds around it that low quickly changed to a real high.
SMP: What are your high moments of what you have been doing so far?SP: Music is irrationally seductive so getting the music deals in place and seeing the audience grow each day.
SMP: Now that you are established, what do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities?SP: I see us moving from start-up to up-start but the biggest challenge for We7 and in fact all ad funded music services is to make the economics work. Giving music away has proved to be easy, making it a good environment for advertisers so that the revenue streams become scalable - the jury is still out. Due to the metrics we are seeing, we believe it can be done and remain confident going forward.
SMP: The 2009 Digital Britian Report has been released, what were you looking to see from it?SP: In three parts:
A) On Music and Digital Content
Music and other high value content need two things - A strong deterrent to piracy to protect the value and investment so that we can continue to produce world class music in the future - and secondly high profile education to guide people to legal services, such as We7.
The Digital Britain report missed the opportunity to provide the true pathway to protecting our creative industries from illicit filesharing.
B) The most positive thing on the report overall
The best thing about the report is clearly the goal of Universal Connectivity which is an essential goal for any digital economy, this will mean more access, more consumption more opportunities across the board.
C) On the impact of Universal Connectivity
The ability to reach all the population will change all of our lives but simultaneously will mean that content with implicit value such as music, TV, Film will be increasingly accessed which by its nature require protection of that value and a strong deterrent to piracy is clearly needed together with significant education of available legal services, such as We7, again the report had an opportunity to put a powerful stake in the ground but the outcome seems to have been severely watered down even since the Interim report.
SMP: Have government and other stakeholders missed an opportunity? If so how?SP: The Digital Britain report had the opportunity to set an outstanding aspirational roadmap and create a real JFK moment when he announced in 1961 'Lets go to the Moon' but it feels more like "lets go to Surbiton" and sadly falls short of giving the real focus for significantly enhancing Britain's competitiveness in the future
SMP: How can they put it right?SP: Not sure they can, the time has passed
SMP: What approach can all stakeholders take (including consumers) do to reduce and eradicate music piracy? SP: Use and tell everybody to use legal services such as We7. Educate and promote rather than threaten and steal.
SMP: What are the next moves for We7?SP: Sell more adverts, get more music , get more audience ? simple!
SMP: What?s the next big step for social media and networks; what impact has this had upon music?SP: Making the online tethered world and mobile world seamless, so when mobile you can access everything you would on your computer, in the palm of your hand, on the go. As more people are interacting with social media via their mobile devices, networks and applications continue to develop.
With 3G capabilities and Bluetooth technology and beyond, advances are being made for people to access other people?s information and social network profiles via their mobile, when someone comes into range - truly bridging the gap and bringing the virtual world within the realms of real life. The opportunities are endless for businesses, as well as personal interactions.
Barriers will also start to dissolve as open source becomes more widely adopted, giving everyone access to all online applications.
The impact this will have on music, is making it more accessible than ever before, allowing people to consume music how they want to, when they want to and access over ownership will continue to grow. The eventual goal for music is not to worry about download, stream P2P mobile or tethered but just ?PLAY?
SMP: What?s going to be the most interesting aspect regarding social media / technology throughout 2009?SP: Again as the above develops throughout 2009, advancements in mobile applications, including the open source approach of Google Android will be interesting to watch.
Plus being able to unify your information and contacts across multiple social media sites, with the ability to update all your networks from one central source.
By the end of 2009 it will be most interesting to see which technology companies have made it through this difficult time and are still standing, particularly within the music industry. With the demise of Spiral Frog and now MySpace laying off staff, there are many challenges ahead.
Will Twitter maintain its unusual appeal and will YouTube make money?
SMP: What impact is the global recession having and what do you think the best way is to manage it for businesses such as yours?SP: Mainly it makes people miserable and decisions slower so you have to manage costs and make sure that your model adds up.
SMP: How does this fit into plans at We7?SP: Our focus now is ad sales and economics
SMP: Best way to contact you?SP: steve @ we7.com and
http://twitter.com/we7
Now some questions for fun
SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?SP: Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and Fruit (train breakfast)
SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?SP: Helped a tourist from being lost in London
SMP: How many hours do you work a week?SP: More than there are available, typically 60-80
SMP: If you weren?t running We7 what would you be doing?SP: Running another exciting business I love the idea of building something from scratch, giving it life and trying to deliver on the impossible
SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?SP: Spain beginning of Easter
SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?SP: Ah I live two hours North from London so commute most days so my office from 7-8:45 is the Virgin Train from Manchester so I get online, check yesterdays traffic, catch up emails and plan the day
SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?SP: Insomniac Man ? no need to sleep so I can get more done
SMP: Is there a corporate or personal blog/s we should know about?
SP: The We7 blog
http://blogs.we7.com/weblogSMP: Tell us how you are giving some love back?SP: Tell your users to use Promo code 7DAU62KVJPAW when they try and register with We7 and get a month of music with no ads free.
Further reading: Digital Britain Report - 16 June 2009
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