7digital Powers The X Factor Winner to Download History

Biggest Download Looks Set For Christmas Number One

7digital has witnessed the company’s largest ever download to-date with X Factor winner Shayne Ward’s ‘That’s My Goal’ being downloaded over 50,000 times via www.7digital.com before the CD was made available in retail stores on Wednesday. This broke the UK Guinness World Record for the most downloaded track in one day.

Ben Drury, Managing Director of 7digital said “We knew that music downloads this Christmas would eclipse last year and the BPI has predicted that it may be by as much as 400%. This is the first year that downloads have been included in the official music chart and will likely outsell physical copies.’

The winning X-Factor song was available exclusively from www.7digital.com through the X-Factor website from midnight on Saturday 17th December, just 2 hours after the winner was decided by public vote. 7digital offered viewers the chance to pre-order and purchase the winning song by sending an SMS message, which returned a code. When the winner was announced and the track made available for download, users went to the site, entered the code and received the track. Over 4.5 million people voted for Shayne Ward, all SMS voters then received instructions on how to purchase the download. 80% of downloads purchased were using SMS codes, the remainder with credit and debit cards.

Drury continued, “Consumers were really gripped by the show and our technology helped to satisfy the immediate demand for the song, delivering more value* to the content owners. Having sold more than enough to put the record to number one in a normal week and now that it is available to iPod users as well it looks destined to make Christmas number one history.”

Jon Davis, Director of New Media, Sony BMG had to add “This is the first year in British TV history whereby you can download the winning song almost immediately, we always predicted there would be a massive demand and it was great 7digital could help make it possible for us.”

*Media downloaded from www.7digital.com can fully support digital rights management. Singles are usually priced from 77p, the X-Factor winner costs £1.50.

7digital Video Content Powers the Launch of Creative’s Vision:M

UK’s Biggest Video and Audio Download Catalogue Now Available on Portable Devices

7digital, the UK’s biggest legal music and video download provider, has demonstrated the portability of its digital video download service at the launch of Creative’s latest portable media player, the Zen Vision:M today.

The new 7digital download service at www.7digital.com features over 5,000 DVD quality videos to download from a broad spectrum of media companies such as EMI, Sony BMG, Channel 5, Warner, Universal, V2, MTV and many others.

Ben Drury, Managing Director of 7digital said, “Creative is leading the way in portable media players and we are delighted to be working with them, making new and exciting content available online for legal download. Now consumers are comfortable with downloading, we are seeing more interest from the media owners who are looking to maximise the potential of the content they create.”

Video downloads are available in all popular formats and can be played on desktop PCs or portable players such as the new Creative Vision;M and other popular media players with video support.

7digital is already firmly established in the music industry by providing the download capability for all the major record labels and over 200 independents. In addition, 7digital is helping artists such as Gorillaz and Coldplay make downloads available directly from their own websites.

Geraldine De Bonis, European Business Manager for Creative commented, “We are seeing huge interest from consumers in devices that store photos and play music and videos, and are pleased to be working with 7digital as they give consumers the content they want and media owners the security they demand. With our latest players, users can carry up to 120 hours of top quality video entertainment provided by 7digital.”

Videos downloaded from www.7digital.com fully support digital rights management and are priced from 99p.