We7 CEO Provides Insight on their Business Model

A couple of days ago I asked a few questions about We7's business model, and Steve Purdham, the CEO for We7 graciously responded with some good insight. As such, his comments warranted a new post. Here's what he had to say:

1) Can advertising support the business: We obviously believe yes otherwise there would be no point, however there are challenges. The biggest being the disparate economics of the current Music and Ad worlds. However, early signs are looking very promising in particular for Streaming and we believe downloading will follow.

2) What's to prevent people removing the ad: In streaming its not practical; In downloading, its definitely possible to remove the ad, it is just an MP3 file. However you wouldn't use We7 if your end game was just a track with no ad, you can already achieve that in a myriad of dubious ways. The point is you get the music free from We7 because you are paying with time rather than your money, it is an open contract.

3) How long do you get the ad: Two mechanisms here, first; time related after 4 weeks you can re-download a track and the ad is removed. The second method is our new download manager (coming soon) which will plug-in to iTunes which will remove/change the ad after a number of plays.

4) Artist do have a choice with us Ad funded Stream, Ad Funded download or Paid for Download. And they can choose to use any combination now. The issue is, although some people are prepared to pay for some indie music, how many artists don't get heard because the consumer decides that they don't want to pay, for many artists discovery is as important as payment.

Great feedback Steve! Many thanks for your time and comments! Best wishes to you and We7!