7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announced the appointment of Paul Langworthy as Vice President of Operations. Langworthy joins from digital TV service YouView, and will focus on developing 7digital’s operations capability to support global expansion.
Langworthy’s appointment will support 7digital in continued global expansion into new territories, including Asia, Africa and Latin America. His appointment follows 7digital’s expansion into several markets early this year, including India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and South Africa. In his new role, Langworthy will assume responsibility for 7digital’s entire operations function, including content supply chain, customer services and reporting.
With 11 years experience in digital and content operations, Langworthy has worked across all aspects of the digital supply chain including metadata, rights, scheduling, asset management and distribution. Prior to 7digital, Paul was the Head of Content Operations at YouView, the UK-based connected TV service. At YouView he was responsible for building the service’s content operation, and overseeing ingestion of 30,000 films, TV and radio programmes from broadcasters including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, BT, TTG, and Sky’s new Now TV service. This culminated in the successful launch of the UK’s fastest growing connected TV service.
Before YouView, Langworthy spent over nine years with Universal Music Group. At Universal he held various roles in the label’s International Digital Supply Chain Management division, helping to transform the company’s operations from a traditional physical business into a leading digital outfit. This included developing digital standards, digital distribution platforms and enabling direct-to-consumer digital distribution.
Ben Drury, CEO of 7digital comments “Paul is an excellent addition to the 7digital senior management team. He brings a wealth of experience in digital operations that will ensure our international and services expansion is supported and continues at the right pace.”
Commenting on his new role, Paul said: “I’m joining 7digital at a really exciting time; we have huge growth plans globally and I can’t wait to contribute the next phase of our story.”
Langworthy will be based in 7digital’s headquarters in London, UK. The announcement follows a recent expansion of 7digital’s international team, with senior appointments in the UK and US last year.
7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announces the 7digital app will be pre-installed on all new HTC One smartphones.
This follows a successful 7digital pre-installation on all HTC ICS Sense 4.0 Android devices in EMEA, including the Hero devices from the One Series that shipped to over 20 million users in Spring of 2012.
7digital has their own mobile apps for Android, iOS, Windows and BlackBerry operating systems and is available in over 40 territories. Other major device partners have integrated 7digital’s mix of global music rights and technology into the functionality of their own music services, including Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and S4. Both types of integrations mean over 100 million smartphone devices will ship with 7digital-powered music apps installed during 2013.
HTC’s pre-installation of 7digital’s Android app will allow their users to browse, preview and purchase music from 7digital’s 23 million track catalogue. Once purchased, music is stored in the user’s ‘locker’ and can be automatically synced to multiple devices.
Ben Drury, CEO 7digital comments: “We’ve had a strong relationship with HTC for many years and are keen to expand with their aggressive plans for the new HTC One handsets. By taking an agnostic approach to platforms, we are offering 7digital customers the opportunity to choose which devices they want to use to access the content they own. We’ve seen great growth in 2013 through our partnerships.”
The app will be on all HTC One devices shipping to the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announces a partnership with QNX Software Systems Limited that will see 7digital’s HTML5 music store made accessible through the QNX CAR™ application platform for the automotive infotainment market.
7digital’s HTML5 global digital music store has been integrated within the QNX CAR platform. This integration allows automotive manufacturers and OEMs to build digital music stores directly into QNX-powered in-car infotainment systems.
The HTML5 store’s UI matches 7digital’s existing web and mobile store, already available in over 40 countries. Users of the integrated stores will be able to browse, preview and purchase music within their car, as well as access their existing collection already stored in 7digital’s cloud-based Locker. This will extend the 7digital connected-device experience to the car.
The QNX CAR platform for infotainment systems is based on QNX® technology
deployed in millions of cars on the road today. Most of the world’s major automotive manufacturers, including Audi, BMW, GM, Honda, and Toyota, ship cars with QNX-based infotainment systems.
The integration has been completed using the 7digital Application Programming Interface (API), which allows 7digital’s partners and developers to build digital music stores into existing products and services using 7digital’s technology platform. The QNX CAR platform is available now to automotive companies wanting to build a native HTML5 music application store within car infotainment systems.
“Connected and mobile devices have changed the way music is consumed, but one thing that hasn’t is people’s desire to listen to music in the car,” comments Ben Drury, CEO of 7digital. “We’re already working with partners in the automotive sector and now, for the first time, automotive companies using the QNX CAR platform can leverage our HTML5 music store, where their customers can access the largest collection of digital music from the convenience of their vehicles.”
“The lines between in-car systems, mobile devices, and the web are blurring,” said Derek Kuhn, vice president of sales and marketing at QNX Software Systems. “Our partnership with 7digital is a testament to how well digital music services can be integrated into a seamless automotive user experience.”
The QNX CAR application platform for infotainment systems is available now to automotive companies worldwide. Track and album pricing will be in local currency in each region. 7digital also powers the music service on the BlackBerry® World™ storefront for BlackBerry® 10 smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, which offer a mobile computing platform based on the QNX OS architecture.
The partnership is the latest example of 7digital’s move into the automotive sector, and follows a partnership with Pioneer that saw the 7digital catalogue integrated into Pioneer’s AppRadio product.
New Samsung Galaxy S4 Music Hub is powered by 7digital.
London, UK, 15 March 2013 – 7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announces the company’s technology is powering Samsung’s MusicHub app, which comes pre-installed on all Galaxy S4 smartphones.
This latest partnership means over 100 million smartphone devices will ship with 7digital-powered music apps installed during 2013, including the Galaxy S4, BlackBerry 10, HTC and Windows Phone handsets. 7digital has been selected for a third time as the music partner for Samsung’s flagship smartphone, following similar partnerships at launch of the Galaxy S3 and S2 phones.
The MusicHub app allows Galaxy S4 users to browse, preview and purchase music from 7digital’s 23 million strong track catalogue. Purchased music is stored in the cloud and can be automatically synced with multiple devices, and stored locally for offline listening. The app also allows users to stream 7digital’s full catalogue direct to their smartphone, and access radio stations based on favourite artists.
Music streaming has seen significant growth during 2013. 7digitial has seen a tenfold increase in tracks streamed from the 7digital API in the past year, with the figure set to rise to hundreds of millions of streams by the end of 2013. The quality of music streaming has been improved through the use of Dolby Pulse technology, which reduces consumer and carrier bandwidth usage and results in faster music access on all data plans.
“We’re well known for delivering a high-quality digital music download experience globally, in partnership with many leading companies including Samsung” comments Ben Drury, CEO at 7digital. “High growth of the mobile sector led us to expand our open music platform and technology, and we’re now powering a diverse range of mobile digital music services – including radio and on-demand subscription streaming. We’re witnessing huge growth across the international markets we’re operating in, in both streaming and downloading of legal music.”
MusicHub is a free app pre-installed on a range of Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S4. A monthly subscription is required to access streaming services.
Huge growth in mobile music and the introduction of streaming leads to expansion into territories with high mobile penetration. High quality digital music available in South Africa, Asia and South America.
London, UK, 22 February 2013 – 7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announces the expansion of the company’s digital music services into new international territories in South Africa, Asia and South America.
7digital has acquired digital music licensing agreements with major and numerous independent labels in India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and South Africa. 7digital is now licensed in 42 countries, further cementing the company’s leadership position with the broadest reach of digital music rights globally.
The expansion has also been driven by the continued growth of 7digital’s mobile platform and the expansion into streaming services. New streaming partners in 2012 included Samsung and Pure, with 7digital powering subscription streaming services for Samsung’s Music Hub app and Pure’s radio range, and streaming of purchased content on Sonos devices.
The 7digital API has over 13,500 requests per minute, a 137% increase over January 2012. This has led to significant year-on-year growth in markets with high mobile penetration in particular; the US grew by 180%, while Canada grew by 117%. A full breakdown of growth is given below.
“We’ve seen strong growth in mobile throughout 2012, and believe it will become the largest platform for music in 2013. The natural route for us is further international expansion in territories where we’re seeing strong mobile growth” comments Ben Drury, CEO at 7digital.
The 7digital API allows 7digital’s partners to build digital music applications into existing products and services and powers applications on connected devices, including smartphones, tablets, connected audio devices and smartTVs.
Top performing geographies for 7digital in 2012 (percentage year-on-year growth in sales):
New State of the Art Music Interactive Allows Visitors to Vote for Their Favorite Hits.
SEATTLE, Wash. – Experience Music Project (EMP), in partnership with 7digital, introduced “On the Wall,” a new, state-of-the-art interactive installation, that allows museum visitors to vote for their favorite songs.
This large-scale 7’ x 10’ video wall hosts a collage of audience-picked songs in distinct custom categories. Visitors are invited to step up to one of two touch screen voting stations, type in their selection, and see how it ranks on the big screen. Categories include “Best break up song”, “Best song to make you get up and dance,” “Best song to sing in the car,” “Best song to cheer you up,” “Best guilty pleasure song” and “Best song of your parent’s generation.” Currently, “Gangnam Style” by Korean pop sensation Psy is leading in most categories, mirroring the song’s worldwide popularity. (This may change in mid-Feb)
“On the Wall” is powered by 7digital’s Application Programming Interface (API), which allows developers and partners to license and access 7digital’s technology platform and music catalogue to create new music websites, applications and devices, or to integrate music into existing services.
7digital’s API is being used by a diverse mix of global partners including T-Mobile USA, Samsung, Blackberry, and radio streaming companies across laptops PCs, tablets, connected TVs and cars. This will be the first museum partnership for 7digital and demonstrates the flexibility of 7digital’s platform.
“EMP is one of the most innovative museums in the country for music lovers and is based in Seattle, which is a city very rich in musical history. So naturally we were thrilled to partner with them for the ‘On The Wall’ installation,” said Vickie Nauman, president of 7digital North America. “Music is very emotional and certain songs create memories and feelings that are triggered whenever we hear them. In a world-class museum like EMP, visitors can interact and view album art from current and catalog artists, and we are impressed by the museum’s use of our API in yet another truly unique experience.”
“On The Wall” serves EMP’s youth demographic by cultivating the museum’s teen audience as active contributors to, rather than passive consumers of popular culture. The interactivity achieves a vital step toward the organization’s mission-aligned goal of delivering innovative programs that leverage new media and technology in order to enrich visitors’ understanding of art and culture.
“’On the Wall’” complements the museum’s content by letting us engage with the public in a unique, real time way,” says Jasen Emmons, EMP’s director of curatorial affairs. “Music trends are constantly changing and ‘On the Wall’ allows us to stay current and represent what’s most popular with our visitors.”
All music featured in the “On the Wall” interactive exhibit is available for purchase through us.7digital.com.
This project is made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards. The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards were created to support exemplary arts organizations to pioneer effective practices to engage more people in high-value arts activities.
Update brings new wish list and playlist functions to the app and makes it easier to preview and purchase new music through an Android device.
London, UK, 12 February 2013 – 7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announced the release of an updated version of its Android application.
The update brings new wish list and playlist functions to the app, which have been added following feedback from existing 7digital users, and make it easier to preview and purchase new music through an Android device. The update includes:
The 7digital Music for Android app allows users to access 7digital’s entire catalogue of over 22 million high quality digital music tracks. The app acts as an all-in-one music player and store, syncing new and previously purchased tracks stored in a user’s 7digital Locker.
The application is available worldwide to Android smartphone and tablet users. It’s free and can be downloaded directly from Google Play, GetJar and the Amazon Appstore. Further information on 7digital’s mobile applications is available at 7digital.com/mobile.
7digital music service fully integrated into the Sonos Wireless HiFi System. Users can instantly stream purchased tracks and albums in HiFi quality.
San Francisco, CA, 9 January 2013 – 7digital, the leading open digital music platform, today announced a global partnership with Sonos that will allow streaming of digital music tracks and albums through the Sonos range of wireless HiFi systems. The service is available in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States at launch with additional territories on the horizon.
From January 9th 7digital users will be able to access and stream all music stored in their 7digital cloud locker through a Sonos Wireless HIFI System, allowing them to instantly listen to their collection anywhere in the home. Tracks and albums are stored in the cloud, and no downloading to the Sonos device is required. All music purchased through a 7digital web store or 7digital mobile app is automatically synced with a user’s cloud locker, making it available on any Sonos system.
The new service can be added via “More Music” on any Sonos Controller, which will add the 7digital icon to the main menu. Users have the option to stream music by album, artist or shuffle playback of their music library. For more information on 7digital for Sonos please visit http://www.7digital.com/sonos
“Accessing your personal music collection in Sonos allows music fans to enjoy music in their most natural listening environment – the living room, which also adds value to your music collection,” comments Ben Drury, CEO at 7digital. “Sonos systems, which are built for the wireless home and have no internal storage of media files, showcase the fact that digital music is no longer about downloads vs streaming, but about access to your favourite music in all of your favourite devices. We believe the Sonos sound quality and simplicity enhance the 7digital experience globally.”
”We strive to stream all the music on earth in the format a customer wants,” notes Kristen Bender, Senior Product Manager, Music for Sonos. “7digital adds another outstanding option for accessing music from the cloud to stream in the home and we are happy to have them available to our customers in so many countries around the world.”
The news follows a number of 7digital partnerships with connected device manufacturers. 7digital music applications are available on smartphones and tablets from Samsung, RIM and HTC, Windows Phone mobiles, Windows 8 desktops, laptops and tablets, and Pioneer in-car stereos. Any music purchased from 7digital or its partners will be enabled in Sonos.
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Notes to Editors
7digital is the world’s leading digital music and content technology platform, and provides open access to the broadest catalogue of fully licensed, high quality digital music. The company powers comprehensive digital music services for consumers, developers and a wide range of partners around the world.
Through 7digital’s website (www.7digital.com), mobile applications and cloud locker technology, consumers can access over 22 million legal, high quality tracks and listen to their music on the device of their choosing. 7digital provides the complete music experience; discovery, organisation and purchase.
The 7digital API (Application Programming Interface) allows developers and partners to license 7digital’s technology platform and music catalogue to create new music websites, applications and devices, or to integrate music into existing services. The 7digital API removes the complexity of developing digital music services by providing partners and developers with an extensive catalogue that is fully licensed by major labels, independent labels and royalty collection societies. The API enables a range of digital music services to be developed; from a la carte downloads to radio streaming.
7digital has provided digital music services to hundreds of international partners, including record companies, artists, FMCG brands, retailers, consumer electronics companies, fashion brands, advertising agencies and many other organisations. Using 7digital’s technology platform, partners can harness the power of digital music to engage with their customers.
7digital’s global partner network includes Samsung, RIM, Toshiba, HP, Acer, HTC, T-Mobile US, Ubuntu, Shazam, Last.fm, Winamp, Songbird, HMV, Waterstone’s, Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music and Sony.
Established in 2004, 7digital is headquartered in London, at the heart of the city’s Silicon Roundabout, and operates offices in Los Angeles and Luxembourg.
For more information visit about.7digital.com. To download 7digital images and the press kit visit http://about.7digital.com/press/press-kit/.
Founded in 2002, Sonos® is the leading manufacturer of wireless music systems. The Sonos Wireless HiFi System lets you stream all the music on earth wirelessly in every room of your home with control from your Android® smartphone, iPhone®, or iPad®. In addition to playing your personal digital music collection, Sonos gives you access to millions of songs and thousands of radio stations by partnering with 7digital, AUPEO, Deezer, iheartradio, JUKE, Last.fm, MOG, Napster®, Pandora®, Rdio®, Rhapsody®, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Slacker Radio®, Spotify, Stitcher SmartRadio™, TuneIn, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more. The award-winning Sonos Wireless HiFi System is available at more than ten thousand retailers in over 65 countries worldwide; or direct from Sonos at www.sonos.com. Sonos, Inc. is a privately-held company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Hilversum, Netherlands, Beijing and Shenzen, China, and Penang, Malaysia.
Partnership advances new roles for music classification technology benefiting moods, activities, & health in entertainment, lifestyle and wellness sectors.
New York, NY — January 6, 2012 — 7digital, a leading digital music and media delivery company, and Sourcetone, a New York City health-based, research-driven music streaming company, today announced a partnership in streaming music.
Sourcetone, a pioneering, research driven, music-health company, based in NYC helps people achieve healthy lifestyles through the joy of listening to music. 7digital provides digital music services to hundreds of partners globally including Samsung, Research In Motion, T-Mobile USA, and now to the streaming music company Sourcetone.
The partnership expands Sourcetone’s streaming music library with 7digital’s extensive music catalogue, made available to listeners through Sourcetone’s music streaming products which include mobile apps, online radio, music for public spaces, as well as customized classification capabilities for third party use. Sourcetone’s patent-pending Music Classification System Technology® (MCST™) has classified more than 12 million songs for its 21 Mood, Activity and Health channels. MCST™ is the core of Sourcetone’s ground-breaking “lifestyle-driven” music products that promote unique music discovery/song management experiences for end users.
Malcolm Goodman, Co-Founder and President of Sourcetone stated, “I am excited that the integration of our research and technology with 7digital’s high quality music delivery system advances our mission to help people and businesses benefit through the joy of listening to music.”
“To make Sourcetone successful, we needed more than basic access to a large digital library”, said Dr. Jeff Berger, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sourcetone. Further stating, “7digital’s team provides a highly flexible technology integration with the MCST™ engine that powers our Mood, Activity, and Health channels, and their capabilities and tech savvy were exactly what we needed to bring our music streaming products to market.”
7digital’s feature rich API allows partners to choose between a number of software methods and a global catalog of over 22 million songs from all the major and independent music label distributors and aggregators. The flexibility of this offering has provided music and lifestyle brands, major consumer electronics companies, carriers and partners from other sectors, a quicker, legally licensed approach to market. This is 7digital’s first partnership with a company focused on the health and wellness sector.
Of the partnership, 7digital’s President of North America, Vickie Nauman said, “We are very interested in working with organizations like Sourcetone that are concentrating on a specific and niche market for music. There are many companies trying to be everything to everyone, yet the history of music and radio demonstrate that targeted services for select music fans can be very successful. The research that Sourcetone has done to understand how music can be used in the health sector is impressive and we are excited to allow our API to provide a streaming and MP3 catalog in this setting.”
Both companies will continue to work together to improve an already robust combined service, adding 400,000 new songs to the library each month and implementing advanced user personalization features. The joint partnership will enable Sourcetone to promote its 21 Mood, Activity and Health channels as the most comprehensive mood-based streaming offering available anywhere, on a scale not offered by anyone else in the world.
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About Sourcetone
Sourcetone, a pioneering, research driven, music-health company, based in NYC helps people achieve healthy lifestyles through the joy of listening to music. Its MCST™, a patent pending, fully-automated music classifications system software is an industry first and was created from clinically-supported research conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and by Sourcetone’s world-class research team. In 2009, Sourcetone tested an online consumer beta product which validated the MCST’s™ effectiveness and advanced product development of a suite of 6 different music streaming products targeting the wellness, entertainment, and retail business sectors.
About 7digital
7digital is a leading digital media company operating globally, based in London. Through 7digital’s download store (http://www.7digital.com ) and mobile applications, consumers can access over 20 million high quality music tracks, as well as audiobooks and videos, at competitive prices across Europe, North America and beyond. Combining 7digital’s secure and robust technology platform with the broadest agreements in the digital media industry, the company provides comprehensive digital download and streaming services to a wide range of partners and brands around the world. 7digital’s enterprise level Application Programming Interface (API) is used by 300 partners globally, including: T-Mobile USA, RIM, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Ubuntu, Shazam, Last.fm, Winamp, Songbird, HMV, Waterstone’s, Pernod Ricard, Nestlé, Arcadia Group, Adidas, Procter and Gamble, Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.
Windows Phone 8 app is now available with HD support, fast app resume and improved Live Tiles.
London, UK, 3 January 2013 – 7digital, one of the leading open digital music platforms, today announced its app for Windows Phone 8 is now available in the Windows Store.
The new version updates 7digital’s existing app for Windows Phone 7. The app provides users access to 7digital’s entire catalogue of 22 million high quality digital music tracks, allowing users to search for favourite artists and tracks, and discover new music based on 7digital’s recommendation technology. 30 second previews clips are available on all tracks, and previously purchased music is automatically added to a user’s cloud-based 7digital Locker for access on any device or through a web browser.
The new app includes:
The latest update adds Windows Phone 8 to 7digital’s existing apps portfolio for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. The app can be downloaded for free from the Windows Store and is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish.