sevenload 3.0
The rumors you’ve heard over the last few days… are TRUE. So let’s make it official: We’re working on a relaunch version of sevenload, that’ll be going online at the beginning of 2008!
A lot has changed since the very first public Beta version of sevenload (in German) in April of 2006. This includes how everyone uses the web today and how much Web 2.0 has changed our interaction with the internet. Technologies have been improved, internet connections have gotten better and faster, and users have rapidly become accustomed to new features and technological advances. As a young platform, we were able to celebrate our first successes with our partners and today, several million of our videos are viewed daily. Innovation and creativity are constantly pushing us towards our ultimate goal!
sevenload was strengthened this year and last through company investments made by Hubert Burda Media Research & Development, media ventures and dw capital. We concentrated on doing business with will-known companies and developed sites such as BMW-web.tv and sportsfreunde.de. The German site grew and grew in terms of partnerships with various content creators and has grown to over 200 Specials in 25 different categories, while the English site has also continued to grow as well and is looking forward to a slew of new Specials in the New Year. But let’s not forget one of the most important aspects of this whole process- our team and our spirit has also grown immensely and has also gotten more experienced.
But what about our users and the community? In order to answer this question we need to be very clear: We know that user expectations in this market are very high. Up to this point, we have always taken any ideas, comments or criticisms from our partners as well as our users very seriously, but typically remained somewhat quiet in our responses and did not make most of them official.
sevenload does not want to be a video search engine like YouTube. And in comparison to other video platforms, we are not just a platform for funny clips and television show snippets.
On the one hand, sevenload is a portal for creative thinkers and film makers, for friends and family, and on the other hand a real working company that (as a platform) is continuously growing. Often times, we’re compared to other sites in this aspect – but sevenload is going to define its own market, a market that will be able to differentiate itself from typical video platforms.
And so therefore, our motto is: show more, offer more, promote more and ask for more. With our relaunch in 2008 sevenload will become more of a Social Media Network than just a photo and video platform. A website that will offer its community multiple technological and content changes/enhancements, a revenue sharing model for content owners and other various enhancements. Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll be able to track these changes in Ibo’s, Axel’s, Mike’s and the sevenload Corporate Blogs. Our hope is to change the media landscape together with you – and for that we need your feedback and are looking forward to your questions, praise and critiques!
BMW-Web.tv on sevenload
Together with automobile manufacturer BMW, sevenload is now branching out into motion pictures. The BMW-Web.tv international video portal is offering nine different categories and reports on topics such as technologies, motor sports, new cars and events.
In the new sevenload Special a small selection of the numerous video contents can also be found in the Car Channel. News from the research and development department and various other subjects from the automobile branch can now be easily accessed at any time on the web.
Appealing to all fans of the company with the famous blue and white logo, the journalistic approach to the videos varies depending on the subject matter. Whether news, reports, coverage, features or documentaries – the sevenload team has been busy developing and implementing BMW-Web.tv. Our managing director Ibrahim Evsan also explains in detail in his Blog why corporate TV and the prevalence of its content are currently important from an entrepreneurial perspective. In the future a production team, which has been especially put together for BMW-Web.tv, will also be looking after the brand portal and updating it with new content in the future. Selected content will, of course, also be presented on the sevenload channel.
Róisín Murphy- Overpowered
Irish musician Róisín Murphy found fame at the end of the nineties as one half of English duo Moloko. Although she didn’t have any professional singing experience at the beginning of her career, she impressed the masses with her voice and performance in front of the camera and on stage. After the well-deserved successes of past years, Róisín is now also finally proving her talent as a solo artist. With “Overpowered” from the album of the same name, she is now making her sevenload debut.
Link: sevenload.com
The single release from her second album, which will be available from 12th October 2007 in well-stocked record stores, and the acid house-oriented ambience of “Overpowered” is attuned to her past as singer of Moloko. She has teamed up with producer, London drum’n’bass specialist and DJ Paul Dolby alias “Seiji”, with whom she can develop her huge hit potential in a befitting melancholy atmosphere.
Linkin Park Special
The band Linkin Park is meanwhile surfing on a huge wave of success: their new album “Minutes To Midnight” went in at Number 1 in the charts in 38 countries. This was also the case in Germany, where they managed to hold onto the coveted pole position for a total of four weeks. The album has long since achieved platinum status and continues to have a place in the album charts.
After “What I’ve done,” their second single is now in the starting blocks: the title of the party track is “Bleed it out” and one can almost hear the fun and pleasure the guys had while recording the album. “It’s such a unique song. I don’t think we’ve ever made a song like that and I don’t think that anyone could make a song like that. I mean, there are elements in it that are so random, but yet they work together so well and it has such a fun energy,” says guitarist Brad Delson about the new single. You can enjoy the new music video to the single “Bleed it out” here on sevenload!
As well as inspiring sensational enthusiasm with their new album, the sextet from Los Angeles also played four acclaimed live shows in Germany. The absolute highlight had to be their two headlining appearances at Rock am Ring & Rock im Park! On 25th July 2007 Linkin Park embarked upon their own festival tour in the USA entitled “Projekt Revolution,” which will be setting up camp in a total of 30 cities. Alongside Linkin Park such illustrious and well-known bands like My Chemical Romance, Placebo, HIM, Taking Back Sunday and Julien-K will also be making an appearance!
sevenload Management Team Addition: Andreas Heyden
With effect from 1st October 2007 Andreas Heyden will be joining the management team at sevenload GmbH in Cologne as Chief Operating Officer. In his function as COO of sevenload GmbH he is taking over the operative daily business as well as the development and control of cooperation and content partnerships of the media platform for photos and videos. The filling of this vacancy reflects the positive business development of sevenload during the last few years.
“With his media, advertising and technological experience, Andreas combines the different facets of our business model,” said CEO Axel Schmiegelow. “We are exceptionally delighted to have gained such an entrepreneurial co-worker for our management team.”
Ibrahim Evsan, founder and CTO of sevenload GmbH, added: “Andreas has made some extraordinary achievements in his career to date. We are happy to be able to give him this corporate perspective as a proven specialist for product innovation.”
Andreas Heyden (34) can look back on more than eleven years of experience in the media business on a national and international level. His successful career in the internet business began at Metronet GmbH in Subscriber Marketing. During the first internet boom phase he worked in consulting at I-D Media AG and after a career detour in Singapore he moved to Munich where he worked at Microsoft GmbH in the Product Marketing sector of MSN. After this he returned to his hometown of Cologne for a role at RTL interactive GmbH, where he more recently was manager of the innovation and production unit and responsible for the expansion of new internet business models. As division manager he significantly led the expansion of Clipfish.de.
Jennifer Lopez on sevenload!
Jennifer Lopez is back with her new (Spanish language) single “Me Haces Falta”. And you can see the (Germany) premiere of her new video right here on sevenload! Over the length of her career she’s sold more than 25 million albums and more than 7 million singles. Her most successful album up to now is by far “J.Lo” which has sold 8 million copies. In 2003 she was selected as “Favorite Female” at the American Music Awards.
Link: sevenload.com
She has been dreaming of releasing an all Spanish language album for years and now the time has become ripe- at the beginning of this year she released the album “Como Ama Una Mujer” which offers a total of 11 songs (some of which were directed her husband Marc Anthony). After the album’s first hit, “Qué Hiciste”, the new single “Me Haces Falta” is bound to make waves! Check it out!
Get the sevenload Ringtone!
sevenload? sevenload! Several members of our ever-increasing team have been spotted at different events such as the BarCamps with their mobile phones.
For several weeks now many of them have been having fun with the sevenload ringtone. Now you as a community finally have the chance to download the tune for your own mobile phone. And it’s all free of charge!
You only need to save the MP3 file on to your computer and then transfer it on to a MP3-compatible mobile phone – via infra red, Bluetooth or with a USB cable, depending on your phone. By the way, the sevenload song is a creation by master composer Oliver Kels (German), who was also responsible for the individual sounds of Rob Vegas and Girls Breakfast and is regarded as one of the market’s experts for advertising jingles. Enjoy! 
Maintenance
During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday we will be carrying out short-term maintenance work to sevenload from approx. 3am. During this time period it will not be possible to use sevenload.
This work will serve to ensure that sevenload is fast and efficient in the future. We would like to thank you in advance for your understanding and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We expect to be back online again as soon as possible.
Player Preview
We would like to show you a little taster of the future Flash player of sevenload. The player is already in use on the video page and will also be used in the special for Molotov TV.
The player has already been in place for several days now but is still in its early Beta version stages- it still requires some small improvements and a little fine tuning until we will replace the other video players on the entire site with the new system.
If you have any constructive ideas or suggestions of how the player can be improved or which features are required for your optimum video enjoyment – simply make a comment here in the Blog! We are looking forward to your feedback!
sevenload Summer Special (Party!!)
Last weekend sevenload’s entire team as well as numerous invited guests got together above the rooftops in Cologne (well not ALL rooftops, but we were really high up!). We celebrated in the hot sun at the Sky Beach Bar until the wee hours of the morning. There were so many guests, that it’d take forever to list them all… but it was a great mix of sevenload employees, sevenload Stars, our personal friends and business partners!
Rather than actually listing off everyone who was there, these photos might be able to provide better insight as to who all turned up. We hope that they’ll will serve to remind everyone who was there of what a spectacular evening it was. In addition, iFranz shot a short video about the sevenload Summer Special (party). Thanks to everyone for coming out – it was great and we’ll have to do it again!
