7digital

Posted on 2 Sep 2010 at 15:44

7digital has a reputation as the thinking man’s iTunes. It was one of the UK’s first online music stores, and was also the first to offer DRM-free tracks.

The built-in download store for Spotify, 7digital is also integrated into the open-source music player, Songbird, and provides the backbone for the Ubuntu One music store within the Linux OS. A store app is also available for BlackBerry smartphones.

The look and feel is slightly dull, but it’s fast and the search facilities are efficient

There are many good reasons to shop with 7digital. It’s obviously maintained by people who love music, and while it offers a great selection of chart and mainstream rock and pop, the site also champions smaller up-and-coming bands, and offers a great starting off point if you want to explore genres such as Electronica, Dance, Metal, World or Folk. The Jazz and Classical catalogues aren’t quite as impressive, though.

The look and feel is slightly dull, but it’s fast and the search facilities are efficient. We also like the playlists, staff recommendations, artist interviews, occasional free downloads and a regularly updated "music from TV ads" feature. It has no streaming services, but it does have a locker feature for re-downloading lost or damaged music up to three times per track.

Tracks mostly come at 320Kbits/sec, with some older, back-catalogue material dipping to 256Kbits/sec or 192Kbits/sec. 7digital has a Download Manager app that imports your downloads straight into iTunes, but if you don’t want to use that or the very iTunes-like Songbird, then you can simply download your albums as ZIP files.

All this is great, but 7digital is being left behind on the pricing front. While Amazon and Tesco sell most albums for between £3 and £7, 7digital tends to stick around the £7.99 mark, although you’ll find chart albums discounted to £5 for a week or two, and a handful of £3 back-catalogue offers.

Even HMV, which part-owns the store, offers cheaper tracks in many cases. As a result, it’s better suited to those looking for the next big thing, rather than those wanting to buy the latest chart releases.