Ben Drury: 7 Digital

Ben Drury
Age: 30
Company: 7 Digital

A former head of music at BT, Drury led the acquisition and subsequent sale of Dotmusic to Yahoo, Founded two years ago, 7 Digital’s indiestore.com offers unsigned bands the chance to showcase and sell their music, with sales counting towards the UK and US charts, More than 680 bands signed up within the first 48 hours, with video and other downloads onto different formats offered by Drury before iTunes got there. With a market share of more than HMV and Virgin combined, Drury secured exclusive download deals with Xfactor and Live8, and is now looking to gain a foothold in the European market, starting with Germany

2012 update:

With offices in London, Luxembourg and Los Angeles, download stores available globally and dedicated stores in 37 countries, 7Digital’s global takeover is well underway. In 2010, HMV acquired a 50% equity stake in 7digital, creating an even bigger joint market share. In 2012 the company experienced another major boost, diluting the HMV share with a new $10m investment and becoming the official music download provider for the BlackBerry® 10 smartphones.