We7 moves on (again)

Pity poor We7. First the UK-based streaming music service was aiming, not entirely unsuccessfully, to be a browser-based Spotify, then it shifted to something more akin to Last.fm, and now it’s moving on again.

Or more accurately, Tesco has decided to subsume the company into its online film and TV download and streaming brand Blinkbox, nearly a year after taking a majority stake in the company for £10.9m.

Have publishers drunk Spotify’s Kool-Aid?

I’m a big fan of Spotify but can’t help feel a little confused by the way publishers have signed up to its new Play button.

Launch partners for the Play button, which allows most website owners and bloggers to embed streaming music with an ease not seen since YouTube, include The Independent, The Guardian, Mashable, NME and Rolling Stone.

We7 bets on a future in personalised radio

UK digital music company We7 abandoned its free streaming music service this week to concentrate on its Last.fm-powered personalised internet radio.

This allows it to offer ‘stations’ based on an initial choice of artist, genre or song, and in an email to users We7 styled itself as “your free and easy Personal DJ”.

Putting aside fears you may not want your personal DJ to be “free and easy”, We7 has increasingly been heading in this direction over the last few months as it sought to raise the profile of its radio service.