7digital

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7digital
legal form Private Limited Company ( GBR )
founding January 2004
Seat London , UK

Branch / s in

management
Number of employees 120
Branch Manufacture and operation of digital distribution solutions, download provider for audio and video
Website www.7digital.com/business

7digital is a UK provider of digital distribution solutions . The main focus of business activity is the production and operation of tailor-made download sales platforms for media content from artists and labels. In the public perception, however, 7digital is better known for its online music service and the self- marketing platform indiestore for acts without a record deal . 7digital received a Red Herring 100 Europe Award in 2007 .

Companies

7digital was founded in January 2004 by the former dotmusic operators Ben Drury and James Kane. The company is headquartered in London , UK .

In the first half of 2008, 7digital was able to achieve a sales increase of 300 percent in its online branches compared to the same period of the previous year and in March 2008 it had 1.2 million registered users. In the UK 7digital is the second largest online music service.

In 2017 the takeover of the Media-Saturn B2B subsidiary 24-7 Entertainmen GmbH including JUKE (music streaming service) took place , whereby Media-Saturn becomes the largest shareholder and most important customer of 7digital. In the press release, Simon Cole (Chief Executive Officer of 7digital) is pleased about the "24-7 technology" which is an excellent addition to 7digital and includes an attractive service business such as the Danish telecommunications provider TDC .

On May 1, 2019, it was decided by contract that Media-Saturn would end its cooperation with 7digital and properly sell its 11.5% stake after paying a severance payment of 4.5 million euros. In particular, the contract includes the settlement of the costs of terminating juke music streaming.

offer

A key difference to competitors is that 7digital does not only offer a full range with its own company name as an identification brand. Rather, the company only appears as a technical and administrative service provider in the vast majority of the more than 1000 download portals and connections commonly referred to as "stores" (status 8/2008). In this function, 7digital operates the German music download portal of EMI , provides the download functionality for last.fm and much more

Formats

The stores operated by 7digital took a multi-format approach early on. While other offers often have a single file format, 7digital stores often offer the option (depending on the repertoire policy of the respective license owner ) to choose between WMA , AAC , or MP3 ; the quality levels available for audio range from 192  kbit / s to 256 kbit / s to 320 kbit / s. Videos are also usually stored in more than one format, mostly WMV and MP4 in different resolutions.

The well-intentioned approach occasionally causes criticism, especially in stores with repertoire from different providers, since it is apparently not transparent (enough) for consumers why some titles are available in unrestricted MP3 format, while others are only available in restricted-use formats such as WMA or AAC.

Format and quality level (resolution / data rate) are clearly shown on the product pages. Tracks available as MP3 are highlighted with an orange MP3 logo.

Depending on the license holder, titles from 7digital are available with or without DRM ( English abbreviation for Digital Rights Management , i.e. copy protection or usage restriction / s). Due to the reasons mentioned above, it can be worthwhile to pay close attention to the format designations of the products available there.

additional

  • The new full-range stores launched in mid-2007 offer the option of searching for titles specifically by format. Effectively, the option to display only MP3 files means that consumers can filter DRM-free content from the offer. The proportion of DRM-free repertoire (MP3) makes up well over 80% of the total offer (as of 8/2008).
  • 7digital also operates the Nowdio download portal in cooperation with Computec Media Group , where only DRM-free media content is offered for purchase or download.

Catalog equipment

In its own branches 7digital offers repertoire of all majors and a large number of independent labels in the form of single tracks, albums, etc.

The following license agreements are particularly noteworthy:

  • Early 2007 - The entire EMI catalog is available without DRM restrictions.
  • August 2007 - First partner for the online distribution of 24 albums by The Rolling Stones , for the period 1971 to 2005 without DRM restrictions.
  • September 2007 - First partner to sell Pink Floyd 's entire back catalog online without DRM restrictions.
  • September 2007 - First partner for the online distribution of Radiohead's entire back catalog without DRM restrictions. Only complete albums can be downloaded, not individual tracks.
  • March 2008 - Warner Music offers its complete music catalog in MP3 format.
  • September 2008 With Sony BMG 7digital.com wins the last of the four big music groups for the conversion of the offer to MP3 and is thus the first European download provider to make the catalogs of all major labels available DRM-free. Initially, this change will only take place in the UK, but will also be implemented outside the UK by the end of 2008.

Availability of DRM-free content from major labels

Store EMI Sony BMG Universal Warner
United Kingdom Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ireland Yes Yes Yes Yes
Germany Yes Yes Yes Yes
Austria Yes Yes Yes Yes
Switzerland Yes part No Yes
France Yes No No Yes
Spain Yes No No Yes

Payment method

Purchases can be paid for by credit card or PayPal .

7digital only offers à la carte downloads, which means that you can purchase products individually as you wish. Subscription models and the like are currently not part of the offer.

Access, restrictions

  • 7digital online shops can only be used with a web browser and do not require any additional software (in contrast to offers such as the iTunes store , which can only be used with the iTunes program from Apple ).
  • Sales areas are the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain and Germany; Austria, Switzerland and the United States will follow shortly (as of August 2008).
    • Access to the country-specific branches is usually limited to IP addresses for the respective country; This means that at 7digital.de, for example, only customers who access the network via a German ISP can shop .
  • Parts of the available repertoire are currently still limited in use.

Trivia

Initially, all prices contained the number 7, which was intended as an allusion to the company name. For example, albums cost € 10.77. It was drained in mid-2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ STAFF. In: www.7digital.com. 7digital, archived from the original on September 4, 2009 ; accessed on July 5, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Company profile (English) ( Memento from August 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). 4/2007
  3. ↑ a b http://www.7digital.com/ , http://www.7digital.de/ , u. a. (8/2008)
  4. ↑ Press release: 7digital received the Red Herring 100 Europe Award 2007 , 3/2007
  5. ^ Macworld : Amazon, 7digital threaten iTunes UK with DRM-free , last accessed on August 4, 2008.
  6. ↑ a b MediaMarktSaturn participated in the digital music company 7digital. In: mediamarktsaturn.com. June 20, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2019 .
  7. ↑ 7digital Agrees to $ 4.5 Million Settlement That Ends Juke Partnership. April 3, 2019, accessed April 18, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 7 digital agrees terms for settlement with MediaMarktSaturn over Juke service. In: polaris.brighterir.com. March 1, 2019, accessed April 18, 2019 .
  9. ↑ iTunes , Musicload , others (list)
  10. ↑ EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK. In: www.7digital.com. 7digital, archived from the original on November 2, 2009 ; accessed on July 5, 2013 .
  11. ↑ a b Source: comparative searches at
  12. ↑ It's all MP3. Press release: 7digital and Computec found NOWDIO. In: www.computec.de. Retrieved July 5, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Stones roll out 'DRM-free' albums ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), last accessed on February 25, 2008
  14. ↑ 7 digital to offer all Pink Floyd albums DRM-free , last accessed on February 25, 2008
  15. ↑ Radiohead Selling Full Albums Via 7digital Deal , last accessed February 25, 2008
  16. ↑ Warner Drop DRM On 7Digital ( Memento June 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), last accessed on March 5, 2008
  17. ↑ 7digital brings fourth major with MP3 files on board , at musikwoche.de, last accessed on September 17, 2008
  18. ↑ https://help.7digital.com/hc/en-gb/articles/204781391-What-payment-methods-do-you-accept-on-7digital-