We7.com and Sony BMG bring free (ad-supported) music to your ears

As the scrum for a piece of the digital music pie (hmm, pie) continues, it’s become clear in the last couple of weeks that Sony BMG are keen to steal a march on their major label rivals.
Last week came the announcement of their deal with Nokia, which will provide subscription-based music to mobile phone users. And today it’s been revealed that they’ve signed up with We7.com to provide over 500,000 tracks to listen to for free.
What’s the catch? Well, this is a streamed service, so while you will be able to download content from the site, there won’t be quite as many to choose from. What’s the other catch? Advertising.

Each track is free to listen to because it will be preceded by a short advert based on your demographic profile. Sounds a bit icky, but with EMI’s Guy Hands recently suggesting that artists might soon be releasing albums in association with Asda (or something), it’s probably a sign of the way legal digital music distribution is headed. And if it enables free Leona Lewis tracks, that can only be good, right?
Of course, purists are going to point out that having ads for Moonpig.com or whatever before songs is going to inhibit the enjoyment of listening to the new Hoosiers album. Personally I’d take Moonpig over The Hoosiers any day, but obviously there is a salient point there.
Will this approach affect how music is recorded in future, I wonder? Will Michael Jackson’s comeback album be full of fade-outs that tailor themselves to the cosmetic surgery that might follow?
Whatever objections are raised, at least there are folk out there working towards bringing free music to people who want it, without them having to break the law. And it means the artist and record label still get paid. Something tells me that the debate over this approach is going to run and run…
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