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Media - Monday, April 30, 2007

Ad Driven Music Download Biz We7 Funded By Stadium Rocker Peter Gabriel

Oxford, UK-based music download business We7 has raised seed funding from Peter Gabriel and two other founders.

The We7 site allows music downloads that come with short ads/messages that run about 10 seconds, which go off-Web and travel with the music.

The downloader has the choice after a month to remove the ad/message. Advertisers pay We7 between £0.30 and £0.60 per download, and by listening to an ad-supported song 3-5 times the consumer wins rights to access a version without a commercial.

We7 has not yet been blessed by any of the four major labels: EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal, which together control about 80% of the music market.

The company was founded and seed funded by what it calls a Dream Time:
+ Peter Gabriel. Gabriel's last download company, OD2/Loudeye, was sold to Nokia last year for $60M.

+ Steve Purdham had founded SurfControl which was worth £1B at its peak valuation but which sold to Websense for £201M last week.

+ John Taysom founded the Reuters Greenhouse Fund and invested in Yahoo!, Verisign, and Advertising.com.

Read - We7 Releases Ad-Supported Free Downloads (Mashable)