7Digital, which already has partnerships with Spotify and open source music player Songbird, has long been attempting to position itself as the home of non-DRM MP3 sales and it continues to do some interesting deals. The latest is an extended partnership with Warner Music that will see high quality MP3 music downloads from Warner Music added to the service.
Warner Music is the first major to sign a pan-European MP3 deal with 7digital. That means the retailer is now selling MP3s in a higher number of countries in Europe than any other service. As well as Spotify, 7digital has deals with Last.fm and AOL’s WinAmp. 7digital has a catalogue of more than 6m high quality DRM-free sound and video files in various formats, making it especially appealing to a young, tech-savvy consumer base.However the company is far from unseating iTunes as the market dominator. The site opened its API platform to developers in 2008, and streaming media applications were quick to capitalise.
In January last year the startup took £4.25 million ($8.5 million) in a round led by Sutton Place Managers that included original investor Balderton Capital.