7digital.com reports booming first-half 2008 MP3 sales

• Strong growth in digital album sales driven by MP3
• - Sales up more than 300% year-on-year
• - 7digital.com is now number 2 in UK digital music retail
• - MP3 is the format of choice for the discerning digital consumer

London, 1st July, 2008: 7digital.com, leading digital media delivery company and the home of MP3, today announces rocketing digital music sales following the introduction of the DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) MP3 download format across the Warner Music and EMI catalogues. Sales of Warner Music’s catalogue have increased significantly since it became available in MP3 DRM-free format through 7digital.com. In March, 7digital.com was the first company in Europe to offer Warner catalogue in MP3 and instantly sales of Warner catalogue more than doubled.

Top selling albums in 2008 include Kylie’s X, Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Madonna’s Hard Candy. Sales from 7digital.com have increased more than 300% year-on-year to June 2008, driven by the availability of high quality MP3 downloads outstripping the general market growth.

Sales of Warner Music’s catalogue have increased significantly since it became available in MP3 DRM-free format through 7digital.com. In March, 7digital.com was the first company in Europe to offer Warner catalogue in MP3 and instantly sales of Warner catalogue more than doubled.

The increased MP3 offering has proven popular amongst consumers with site traffic shooting up 130% since January, and visits per month rising to nearly 2 million. 7digital.com saw strong sales of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida, selling thousands of copies in the first few days and is believed the leading MP3 retailer of the album beating HMV, Play.com, Tesco, Woolworths and Napster (iTunes was the leading digital retailer but does not sell the MP3 format)

“High-quality, DRM-free MP3 downloads have really sparked a new wave of take up of digital music,” comments Ben Drury, CEO of 7digital.com. “This format makes the digital music proposition simple for consumers with one universal format for all devices. Music lovers are beginning to realise that owning an iPod doesn’t mean you can only buy tracks just from iTunes and, in fact, MP3’s are far superior in terms of compatibility. Since the introduction of EMI and Warner Music’s DRM-free catalogues we’ve been attracting increased numbers of iPod and iPhone users, as well as those using Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Sony Walkman devices and mobile phones.”

With the introduction of Warner’s MP3 catalogue, approximately 80% of 7digital.com’s 4 million track catalogue is now available in the MP3 format. “It is now clear that MP3 downloads represent the future for digital music. With two of the four major labels now supporting MP3 in the UK, we expect to see the whole market supporting MP3 in the not-too-distant future.” concludes Drury
Top 20 MP3 albums for 2008 Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends Kylie Minogue – X Radiohead - In Rainbows Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree Hercules And Love Affair - Hercules And Love Affair Madonna – Hard Candy Hot Chip – Made in the Dark Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! The Kooks – Konk Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture Pendulum - In Silico Mystery Jets - Twenty One Santogold – Santogold R.E.M. – Accelerate Foals – Antidotes Elliot Minor - Elliot Minor Alphabeat – Fascination