7Digital Gets Agressive With Pricing & Features. US Launch Appears Imminent

UPDATED:
UK digital retailer 7Digital is pushing aggressive pricing as well as new features and alliances designed to challenge iTunes and other retailers. The online retailer smartly sells content in whatever format is available leaving fewer holes in its catalog, but now offering more than 70% of it’S 3.5 million track catalog DRM free.  New pricing lowers some album downloads to 5 Pounds Sterling (or 10 pence per track) and single track prices are 50 pence. Both prices are far below iTunes’ 79 pence pricing. 7Digital features include:

• an open, web-based service that supports the iPod and all other players
• no subscription or download required
• browse by
  tags, genres and labels or an enhanced search engine
• a 7digital Locker provides access to personal collections from anywhere
• EMI’s entire DRM and DRM-free catalog in MP3 at 320kbps
• new exclusive video content for download
• Pan-European roll-out of the service in Q3 2007

The company’s is also touting the alliance making 7Digital Last.FM’s preferred download sales provider. The service is already offered on Last.FM in Europe and  "will go live in the US shortly". (Amazon is the current Last.FM provider.) This points to a broader 7Digital assault on America that Hyepbot broke rumors of several weeks ago.  The addition of this aggressive and innovative digital retailer could certainly provide some much needed competition in the US in 2008.

READ THE FULL PRESS RELEASE AFTER THE JUMP

PRESS RELEASE London, 5th December 07 – With increasing speculation regarding the future of Digital Rights Management (DRM) downloads, leading digital media delivery company 7digital.com today ignites a price war and challenges online retailers, including Apple’s iTunes, to match the quality and price of its DRM-free MP3 downloads. 7digital offers up to high-quality 320kbps format MP3s that are free of DRM and work on all media devices including MP3 players, iPods and mobile phones.

“Static pricing and inferior quality formats being offered by certain online retailers is limiting consumer uptake of digital downloading,” comments Ben Drury, CEO, 7digital.com. “We’ve decided enough is enough – we are now offering MP3 album downloads from £5 giving an equivalent track price as low as 10p each.”

A dedicated section of the 7digital.com site – www.7digital.com/mp3 – has been created to help consumers easily search the MP3 catalogue.

7digital.com has a 3.5-million plus strong catalogue of downloads, with approximately 70% of artist material available in the MP3 format at up to 320kbps quality. The high bit-rate makes downloads indistinguishable from CD quality. New additions to the MP3 catalogue include Kylie, Coldplay, Moby, Radiohead and Pink Floyd.

“In the run up to Christmas, when many will get new MP3 players from Apple, Samsung, Sony and others, it’s important consumers realise that they have choice when it comes to buying downloads. MP3 is the only truly universal digital format for music and we are striving hard to make our entire catalogue available as MP3,” continues Drury. “The big issue now is making downloads available in a consumer-friendly, high-quality format at a reasonable price. iTunes has long been the market leader, but its reluctance to offer any kind of flexible pricing or formats other than AAC, which is far from interoperable, has left many consumers unconvinced by legal digital downloads. Our own sales show that, given the choice, consumers overwhelming choose MP3 downloads, which don’t have DRM restrictions. Earlier in the year MP3s were outselling WMA and AAC by almost four to one.”

“As physical format sales continue to decline, we believe it is vital the consumer is given a fair digital offer, both in terms of quality and format. This is why we are issuing the challenge to other retailers to match our offering,” concludes Drury, who is also Deputy Chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).

All downloads from 7digital are automatically stored in the user’s ‘7digital locker’. This acts as an online backup, allowing users to access all material downloaded from 7digital from any computer with an Internet connection. 

* 10p per track is the equivalent track price when buying certain selected albums. Single tracks on their own are available from 50p