7digital has upgraded its flagship 7digital.com website to incorporate new HTML5 technology, including browser based music streaming.

A refreshed user interface and selected new features are available to 7digital customers globally from today. The upgraded site does not have all features enabled in all territories – the fully featured site will launch globally in February 2012.

New features to the 7digital.com site include:

• HTML5 audio technology for wide-ranging browser and device compatibility
• Upgraded user interface with an emphasis on page-loading and browsing speed
• New enhanced search engine
• New 7digital Player mode enables streaming of a user’s purchased 7digital music collection, allowing music lovers to listen to their music from any web browser in any location, as well as download. This feature is currently only available on preview to UK users, but will be available in other territories soon
• Updated 7digital Locker that continues to allow users to access and download / re-download their purchased 7digital music collection to a computer or mobile device through the 7digital Android, iPhone and BlackBerry apps.

We’ve seen significant growth in album and track sales during 2011, with Adele’s album 21 and song ‘Someone Like You’ leading the bestsellers lists.

In 2011, mobile sales accounted for 50% of 7digital downloads globally. The best selling artist of 2011 was Adele with her album 21 and track ‘Someone Like You’.  Red Hot Chili Peppers,  Coldplay and Snow Patrol also featured in the top 20 albums. A comprehensive list of the top 20 albums and tracks of 2011 is provided below.

Mobile growth has been driven by 7digital applications being pre-loaded on millions of devices from consumer electronics partners, including Samsung, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Philips and Toshiba. Updated 7digital apps for Android handsets and tablets, BlackBerry handsets and the launch of an HTML5 mobile site also contributed to mobile growth.

The coming months will see 7digital’s reach widen within the mobile space with the launch of a Windows phone app. A 7digital app for the iPhone, allowing users to sync purchased tracks with their device, also became available at the end of 2011.

Ben Drury, CEO 7digital comments, “We’ve seen another year of strong growth in 2011, especially from smartphone and tablet devices. Sales from mobile devices rose significantly year-on-year for the final two weeks of 2011, rising from approximately 10% in 2010 to 50% in 2011.”

“Our approach to be an open, agnostic digital content partner to the consumer electronics industry is really paying off. We know that consumers want access to their music collection on the device of their choice, anytime, anywhere and we’re helping enable that. 7digital’s catalogue of over 17 million high quality DRM-free MP3 tracks and open API platform mean we are an attractive partner for device manufacturers.”

Top 20 Albums 2011*

1. Adele – 21
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You
3. Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
4. Snow Patrol – Fallen Empires
5. Rihanna – Loud
6. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans
7. Elbow – build a rocket boys!
8. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
9. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
10. Beyoncé – 4
11. Ed Sheeran – +
12. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials
13. Michael Bublé – Christmas
14. Lady GaGa – Born This Way
15. LMFAO – Sorry For Party Rocking
16. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV
17. Chase & Status – No More Idols
18. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
19. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
20. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Top 20 Tracks 2011

1. Adele – Someone Like You
2. LMFAO / GoonRock / Lauren Bennett – Party Rock Anthem
3. Adele – Rolling In The Deep
4. Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer – Give Me Everything
5. Maroon 5 / Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger
6. Rihanna / Calvin Harris – We Found Love
7. Lady GaGa – Born This Way
8. Bruno Mars – Grenade
9. Jennifer Lopez / Pitbull – On The Floor
10. LMFAO – Sexy And I Know It
11. Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
12. Christina Perri – Jar Of Hearts
13. Bruno Mars – The Lazy Song
14. Rihanna – S&M
15. Jessie J / B.o.B. – Price Tag
16. Lady GaGa – The Edge Of Glory
17. Snoop Dogg vs. David Guetta – Sweat (Snoop Dogg vs. David Guetta)
18. Ed Sheeran – The A Team
19. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
20. Katy Perry – Firework

* Note: the lists provided reflect sales from across 7digital’s mobile applications and web-based global stores in 37 territories, which include the UK, US, Canada, Europe and Singapore.

7digital will be expanding its North American operation and opening US offices beginning January 2012 in response to its growing business.

Leading the stateside effort will be newly appointed President of 7digital North America, Vickie Nauman, who has been serving as Vice President since Q4 2009 when the company acquired its US and Canadian music rights. Nauman will oversee business development, strategy, partnerships, label relations, and marketing. As a partner-friendly company, 7digital seeks to expand its growing base of clients and strategic partners that currently includes T-Mobile USA, HP, RIM, Samsung, Songbird, AOL’s Winamp, and Fantrail. Through the use of 7digital’s platform, hundreds of worldwide clients have built music initiatives on 7digital’s API platform (Application Programming Interface), designed to simplify the integration of music into third party efforts.

“The last two years have been full of constant change in the digital landscape, and we’ve been steadily building our profile and partnerships in the US and Canada,” comments Ben Drury 7digital CEO and co-founder, “Vickie has led these efforts and will now lead an expanded presence with new staff and office. We look forward to being able to provide enhanced services to our customers and partners in 2012.”

Commenting on the North American business, Nauman says, “The US market has its own dynamics and needs, and as the digital music market evolves, it’s getting more difficult to find neutral, strategic partners, which is precisely the role we fulfill. We have now established a significant number of North American-based clients as well as a growing business selling 320K MP3s on 7digital.com. Everyone wants a best-in-class experience, a complete music catalog, and a mix of music ownership and cloud-based services, and we are uniquely positioned to deliver this globally.”

Nauman joined 7digital from Sonos, where she established global partnerships between wireless digital music system for the home with music companies Last.fm, Spotify, SiriusXM, RadioTime, Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, and Deezer. Prior to Sonos, Nauman managed an international and media-focused consultancy CrossBorderWorks, created the online services for boutique Seattle radio station KEXP, served on the product team of MusicNet at RealNetworks, and earned a 2006 MBA through the London School of Economics, New York University, and HEC-Paris, in the collaborative executive program TRIUM.

All technology and platform operations will remain in the company’s London headquarters and a small team will manage all partnerships and business in the North American market. Nauman will remain based in Los Angeles, and the team will likely have presence on both the west and east coast as well as maintain its dedicated North American team in London.

7digital is powering MP3 downloads and access to a full catalog of major label and independent music in T Mobile’s digital storefront, the T-Mobile Mall, accessible on phones at store.t-mobile.com. T-Mobile Mall MP3s, as powered by 7digital, includes the following features:

• Millions of songs available from all four major labels (Sony, Universal,
Warner, and EMI) and dozens of independent labels
• Browse top albums and tracks, new releases and various genres
• High-quality MP3s
• Download high audio quality, DRM-free tracks and albums directly to
device with an option to buy now and download later to the device or
to another computer

“T-Mobile is a significant new partner for 7digital’s global business and we are very pleased to make available a full catalog of songs from all four major labels and leading independent labels to millions of T Mobile customers,” comments Vickie Nauman, Vice President North America for 7digital.

Through the use of 7digital’s platform, T-Mobile customers will have an optimized music experience in the browser and on devices. The full track music store was built using 7digital’s Application Programming Interface (API), designed to simplify the integration of music download sales into third party efforts.

“Music discovery is increasingly important for our customers, especially with the phenomenal growth of smartphones, and the T-Mobile Mall gives our customers a simple way to make music purchases so songs can be enjoyed directly on their phone or other connected devices,” said Torrie Dorrell, Vice President of Applications, Content and Games at T-Mobile USA.

The 7digital platform consists of a suite of global music rights and technology features, which are made available to partners through 7digital’s API. The API provides third parties with a simpler way to leverage fully licensed music to create a customized, best-in-class front-end experience.

Our brand new application allows Android tablet users in over 20 countries to access our catalogue of over 16 million high quality MP3 tracks. The layout has been optimised for tablets running the Android Honeycomb operating system, which mirrors the new 7digital online store design.

Homepage

The 7digital music store, now optimised for Android Honeycomb Tablets

The grid format display of the homepage makes it even easier to browse and discover new music. All the latest releases, promotional products and staff recommendations are updated on a regular basis by the 7digital editorial team. Browse through the content by swiping across the screen, and tap on a product to be taken to the artist page.

Preview and browse music at the same time

Preview and browse music at the same time

One of our favourite new functionalities is the brand new 7digital Player, which allows you to preview music and browse the site simultaneously.

Improved search performance and relevancy

mproved search performance and relevancy

Our updated search function is not only over 10 times faster than its previous incarnation, it’s a lot more accurate too; making it easier for you to find the artists you love.

Wireless syncing

With a 7digital account you’re able to wirelessly sync all your music purchases between your phone, tablet and PC. What does that mean? Well, imagine that you purchased Ryan Adams’ new album on your laptop first thing in the morning, but didn’t have time to download the music before you left the house; you can simply open up the 7digital app, or log in to our mobile site, to download and listen to the album on the bus into work.

For further information regarding 7digital for mobile, visit www.7digital.com/mobile

The 7digital app for Android is available to download from the Android Market

7digital announced the company is expanding to the Asia-Pacific region, with stores opening in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Consumers in these countries will be able to purchase high quality MP3 music from 7digital’s extensive catalogue. The new 7digital stores and mobile apps for the Android and BlackBerry platforms will launch progressively in the next few months, with all live by the end of the year.

The expansion follows a successful year for 7digital, which has seen large increase in the amount of devices from companies such as Samsung, RIM, Toshiba, Acer that utilise 7digital’s API technology. There are an estimated four million devices that have shipped with 7digital pre-installed, and that number is predicted to grow to more than 20 million devices next year.

The expansion to these new territories means 7digital now operates local stores in 37 countries across the globe.

Ben Drury, CEO at 7digital, comments “We’re really excited to expand on our success in Europe and North America and to take our market-leading products and technology to the Asia-Pacific region.

“There is a voracious appetite for connected devices in Asia-Pacific, with a growing number of consumers demanding high quality digital content. Our platform will also be available in this region to further expand 7digital applications and services on offer, and to provide consumers with high quality MP3 music on the platform of their choice.”

July 21, 2011 – 7digital is offering HP webOS users an integrated music experience on the new HP TouchPad, where users can discover, buy and listen to music. 7digital’s full track download application is now available in the webOS App Catalog on HP TouchPad. This application is a Tier One featured app built specifically for the webOS platform.

7digital MP3 Music lets HP TouchPad users browse current charts, preview the latest tracks and discover, purchase and download high quality, DRM-free MP3 music from a catalog of over 14 million songs directly to the device.

“HP is a worldwide leader in consumer electronics and we are very pleased to deliver the 7digital global music experience to their sleek designed and highly functional tablet device,” comments Ben Drury, the CEO and co-founder of 7digital. “Through the use of 7digital’s platform, HP TouchPad users will have an optimized music experience at launch.”

“High-quality applications and music are essential to the HP TouchPad,” said Richard Kerris, vice president of webOS Worldwide Developer Relations, HP. “7digital’s deep catalog of music and robust platform will help us bring a great music experience to our customers.”

The 7digital platform consists of a suite of global music rights and technology features, which are made available to partners through 7digital’s Application Programming Interface (API). The API provides 3rd parties such as HP with a simpler way to leverage fully licensed music to create a customized, best-in-class front-end experience.

The 7digital MP3 Music app for the TouchPad features:

7digital MP3 Music app for webOS is available in all countries where TouchPad is currently shipping, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany and France. Currency and pricing for track download purchases is localized for users in each region.

More informationabout HP TouchPad is available at www.hp.com/touchpad.

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7digital, today announced Radiohead’s latest album, The King of Limbs, is available exclusively for download in the high definition 24-bit FLAC audio format from 7digital.com.

The album will be available from 7digital stores across 32 territories in the high-quality FLAC (free lossless audio codec) 24-bit format. The release is the first time a new album from a major artist has been released in this high quality format, and is the first step in 7digital’s move towards higher quality digital music downloads.

This deluxe digital version will also include a 16-bit FLAC and AAC 320kbps version of the album. This allows easy sync and playback on music devices that do not support FLAC format, such as Apple’s iPod.

Ben Drury, CEO 7digital comments, “We support listener choice and strive to offer our customers the highest quality music downloads possible. That’s why we’re pioneering the move towards higher quality audio formats that offer higher quality music than the CD equivalents.

“The Radiohead album, produced by Nigel Godrich was recorded in 24-bit digital audio and it’s great listeners will now be able to download and hear the album in the quality it was recorded at. “Films, television, and visual media have all moved towards higher quality HD formats, and the 24-bit FLAC format is essentially ‘FLAC HD’. The release of Radiohead’s album is the first new release from a major artist, and we’ll be extensively supporting FLAC and FLAC 24-bit going forward.”

The King of Limbs will be available in the high quality FLAC 24-bit format in 32 territories including the UK, US, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and Austria.

What is FLAC? – Learn more here.
• The Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is an open source audio compression format.
• Unlike other popular audio compression formats, such as MP3 and AAC, sound quality is not reduced during digital compression of tracks.
• FLAC files are higher quality than equivalent MP3 files, and can be encoded at 16-bit or 24-bit. This refers to the quality of the digitised analogue signal. Music encoded on CDs is 16-bit quality.
• 24-bit quality recordings are higher quality, making for a clearer sound so every note and instrument can be heard.
• FLAC files can be played on a range of devices including Sony’s Playstation Portable, Samsung Galaxy S, SanDisk media players, BlackBerry smartphones and LogiTech Squeezebox models.
• The format is also compatible with a variety of media players, including Winamp and Songbird.
The deluxe digital album is available from today (28th March 2011) at www.7digital.com in the UK priced at £8.99.

SXSW 2011 was a busy seven days for 7digital!
VP of North America Vickie Nauman attended both the Interactive and Music portion of SXSW and had the great pleasure of talking to start ups, consumer electronics companies RIM and Toshiba, artist-to-fan services, live performance social apps, music discovery services, gaming companies, and streaming services who are all using the 7digital platform. “Music has become so complex that it doesn’t make sense for most companies to do their own licensing or set up a secure platform, especially if they want a broad international service. All of these innovative companies are instead focusing on creating their own best in class user experience, and relying on 7digital’s API to take care of the rest,” Nauman commented.

Once the Music portion of SXSW began, Nauman was joined by Anna Siegel, who manages the US and Canadian 7digital.com stores. She met with labels and artists throughout the week and had the opportunity to film interviews and performances for the site. SXSW Music always proves to be a spectacular setting for new music discovery, particularly fostered by the label and distributor day showcases of new artists. Recorded music was not forgotten by Sony Music Group, who invited 7digital for a lovely preview listening session of their exciting upcoming releases. 7digital partnered up with the UK Trade and Investment to host an official SXSWi showcase at the British Music Embassy and enjoyed a Great British Breakfast in Austin. While the interactive portion of the festival continues to outgrow the music portion – bringing many new faces and discussions to the event – companies that bridge the two fields are finding new ways to interact with potential partners and existing contacts. This was encouraged by two very successful music tech meet-ups held by Rdio and Topspin. Jack White was out and about promoting the legacy of physical album sales through his mobile records store van, spotted by the 7digital team one late night in Austin.

Vickie Nauman spoke on two panels – one SXSW Interactive panel with British innovator ARM, discussing the future of mobile payments, and another called “Music Plus Devices – What Works?” during SXSW Music, which included representatives from Toshiba, Sonos, and Qualcomm. This was a great discussion about the importance and complexity around enabling music in your favorite laptop, smart phone, or tablet. With these panel speakers we heard examples of what it takes to make a successful partnership between digital content services, mobile, car and home devices, and platforms in a positive discussion about the future of the music business.

Quote from Brian Foster (Sr Mgr Business Dev, Alliances Mktg Toshiba America) during the panel, “There are three criteria for a good partnership between a consumer electronics and a music company – First, you need a solution consumers want – and people want music. Second, you want to work with a company that is well-established in the market – 7digital is working with Toshiba in all of our key territories. Third, you want a partner with a lot of proven experience and expertise.”

Link to Music Plus Devices audio: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_MP6721
Vickie Nauman’s panelist profile: http://sxsw.com/node/6744

Vickie’s favorite live performances of SXSW 2011: The Black Angels (big dark rock sound from Austin TX), The Soundtrack of our Lives (Sweden), Bright Light Social Hour (amazing 20 year olds from Austin channeling psychedelic garage rock), supremely infectious performers Fitz and the Tantrums (from Silver Lake’s Dangerbird Records), The Naked and Famous (New Zealand), Alejandro Escovedo and his full orchestra, DeVotchKa in the new ACL Live hall, Duff McKagan’s acoustic set, North Mississippi All Stars, Charles Bradley, Surfer Blood, Chapel Club, Jonquil, and finally… a brand new discovery, San Diego’s Dynamite Walls.

Anna’s favorite live performances of SXSW 2011: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Yuck, Dirty Beaches, La Sera, Charles Bradley, Toro Y Moi, Chikita Violenta (Mexico), Francisca Valenzuela (Chile), Bun B w. Erykah Badu, James Blake (UK), Mother Mother (Canada), The Chapin Sisters, Khaira Arby (Mali) and Charles Bradley.