7digital Blog

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.

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.