MP3 sales soar at 7digital

7digital.com has logged year-on-year growth of more than 300 per cent

Download site 7digital.com has reported strong music sales in the first half of 2008, logging year-on-year growth of more than 300 per cent.

The sales pushed 7digital.com into second place in the UK digital music retailer rankings.

The company attributed much of the growth to its introduction of DRM-free music in March.

7digital.com became the first European company to offer the Warner Music catalogue in DRM-free MP3 format and reported an almost instant doubling of sales.

"High-quality DRM-free MP3 downloads have sparked a new wave of digital music take up," said Ben Drury, chief executive at 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 does not mean buying tracks just from iTunes, and MP3s are far superior in terms of compatibility."

Since the introduction of EMI and Warner Music's DRM-free catalogues, 7digital.com has been attracting record numbers of iPod and iPhone users, as well as those using Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry and Sony Walkman devices and mobile phones.

The site was also the leading MP3 retailer of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida, beating competitors HMV, Play.com, Tesco, Woolworths and Napster. However, it was pipped by iTunes as the overall digital retailer of the album.

7digital now boasts around four million tracks, around 80 per cent of which are available as MP3s.