We7.com, the 4M track strong free streaming music service founded by Peter Gabriel, has announced that it has topped 2M monthly unique visitors. The news comes hot on the heels of its main competitor Spotify announcing its own 2M user landmark. However, this vast intake of users amounts to very little if advertisers don’t get behind both services, something highlighted well by We7 CEO Steve Purdam in a recent interview where he suggested the focus of the site was to “Sell more adverts, get more music, get more audience”. That is very much the priority order today, without advertisers on board survival is reliant purely on funding to ride out the downturn which is no doubt holding potential advertising back. With Spotify recently seeking a further £20M-£30M in investment, funding should keep the ad-funded ship afloat for a while longer. With few other bold options on the digital music deck, no one wants to see the ad-funded ship sink. The interesting part of We7′s 2M milestone is that 50% of that figure comes from it’s “play anywhere” strategy – where music is accessed via online media partners, including NME, the Guardian, the Sun and Daily Mirror. With added reach outside its site and users spending on average 30 minutes within the We7 site itself, the free consumer becomes a valuable customer for brands – but the question still remains as to whether brands can become key customers of these services and support them to a level that can sustain their business model long term?

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