Losses At We7 Highlight Streaming Music Struggles

Losses at UK based we7 offer insights into the struggles facing all music streaming services unless ad revenues jump, labels and rightsholders become more flexible or both.  We7 reported a loss in 2009 of £3.66 million after taxes, up from a £2.61 million loss in 2008. At the end of last year, we7 had total remaining assets of £539,189 with obligations due in the next year of £1.54 million. In January. investors said they would add additional support for the company.

“The market conditions, the collapse of the banking sector and the on-going nervousness of the music industry made the advertising sector particularly susceptible to reductions of budgets and ordering through ’safe havens’,” according to a Music Ally reading of the financials. “The net result of that meant that building sales pipelines and closing revenue was a particular challenge during the year… The overall sales delivery was not as strong during 2009 as we7 would have liked.”