Blinkbox Music
Former music streaming service / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Blinkbox Music?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Blinkbox Music (originally We7) was a free, advertising supported, music streaming service, with over 12 million tracks available for streaming in the UK and Ireland, with content from the music industry, and most independent labels and distributors.
Type of site | Streaming media |
---|---|
Dissolved | November 2013; 10 years ago (2013-11) |
Owner | Guvera |
Revenue | Advertising, subscription |
Registration | Free, required for streaming, required to create playlists |
Launched | April 2007; 17 years ago (2007-04) (as We7) May 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05) (as Blinkbox Music) |
Current status | Defunct |
It was founded by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and tech entrepreneur Steve Purdham, who had previously co-founded and built his previous company SurfControl PLC. Senior management included Gareth Reakes, Russell Chadwick and music executive Clive Gardiner.
Songs streamed on Blinkbox Music were accompanied by a short audio advert, or blipvert, which plays before each song. This was usually combined with a change in the advert on the page, with the intent of the audio advert drawing attention to the clickable advert.
We7 reached 500,000 users and 3.5 million tracks in March 2009[1] and 3 million users and 6.8 million tracks in January 2011.[2]
In June 2012, We7 was acquired by UK retailer Tesco for £10.8 million[3] and was rebranded under the Blinkbox name in May 2013.[4]
Tesco sold the service to Guvera in January 2015.[5] Blinkbox Music was placed in administration in June 2015.[6]
In October 2015, the former employees of Blinkbox Music filed a £10m class action lawsuit against Guvera.[7]