Blinkbox Music
Blinkbox Music (originally We7) was a free, advertising supported, music streaming service, with over 12 million tracks available for streaming in the UK and Ireland, with content from the music industry, and most independent labels and distributors.
Type of site
November 2013
Advertising, subscription
Free, required for streaming, required to create playlists
April 2007 (as We7)
May 2013 (as Blinkbox Music)
Defunct
It was founded by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and tech entrepreneur Steve Purdham, who had previously co-founded and built his previous company SurfControl PLC. Senior management included Gareth Reakes, Russell Chadwick and music executive Clive Gardiner.
Songs streamed on Blinkbox Music were accompanied by a short audio advert, or blipvert, which plays before each song. This was usually combined with a change in the advert on the page, with the intent of the audio advert drawing attention to the clickable advert.
We7 reached 500,000 users and 3.5 million tracks in March 2009[1] and 3 million users and 6.8 million tracks in January 2011.[2]
In June 2012, We7 was acquired by UK retailer Tesco for £10.8 million[3] and was rebranded under the Blinkbox name in May 2013.[4]
Tesco sold the service to Guvera in January 2015.[5] Blinkbox Music was placed in administration in June 2015.[6]
In October 2015, the former employees of Blinkbox Music filed a £10m class action lawsuit against Guvera.[7]
Features[edit]
The main feature of the site was for streaming full tracks without requiring registration. However as of 2011, users have to register for free to listen to a song, otherwise just a 30-second preview is provided. Registration is also required for advanced features such as making playlists, and purchasing music. Due to technical problems, however, a small minority of visitors were getting full tracks for nothing.
The site also had an editorial section titled the 'Magazine', which featured interviews with artists and occasionally runs competitions, such as the Metro Station competition.[18]
Financial performance[edit]
On 6 October 2010, We7 posted losses of £3.6 million.[19] The company claimed that market conditions, the collapse of the banking sector and the ongoing nervousness of the music industry caused the losses. The Guardian had reported earlier in 2010 that We7 had become profitable, using adverts to cover both running costs and payments to labels, which made it the first music streaming company to do so with UK operations.[20]
Mobile applications[edit]
On 18 February 2010, We7 launched its iPhone App. Only users with a "premium plus" account were able to use the application. There was some criticism of the app, because the premium plus account was not launched until 1 March 2010. Premium plus accounts are no longer necessary to use the app. The app has been rebranded and is now known as Blinkbox Music.
On 20 September 2010, We7 launched its Android app. Only users with a "premium plus" account are able to use the application, although there is a free 2 week trial when first using the service.[21] We7 later added a new update/new app to the Android Market which can be used by free accounts to access the radio station part of We7, but it still offers caching and users can cache stations; the service was called We7 Radio Plus. The app has been rebranded and is now known as Blinkbox Music.
