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The Guardian reports that Peter Gabriel’s free music downloads site We7.com has secured £3m in funding.

We7 has been pushing advertising-supported music in an attempt to encourage take-up of legal music downloads, as well as tap the growth in digital advertising.

UK-based venture firms Spark and Eden Ventures teamed up with Gabriel for the second round of funding, with Eden co-founder Charles Grimsdale joining the We7 board.

The service has been trialling 10-second integrated adverts, which are tagged on to tracks and targeted at the demographic of the listener.

Advertisers so far have included Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony Ericsson, Cafe Direct and the Michael Moore film Sicko.

We7 was launched publicly in May 2007 with initial investment from Gabriel and its chief executive, Steve Purdham.

Tags: Spark and Eden Ventures, The Guardian, We7

It appears that Pluck, the social network service platform favored by names like The Washington Post, The Guardian, Reuters, Gannett, NBC Universal and Hearst, may be for sale.Reports say the price may be as high as $75m with potential interest from Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

Founded in 2003, Pluck has raised something like $20m in investment to date: and the Reuters Group. If they get the asking price it will not be a bad return for CEO and co-founder David Panos, who started the company as a venture partner at Austin VP. Presumably if Microsoft buy Pluck the price will be more like $750 million.

www.pluck.com

Tags: Austin Venture Partners, Gannett, Hearst, Mayfield Fund, NBC Universal, Reuters, The Guardian, The Washington Post