Nielsen SoundScan International Captures More Than 675 Million Digital Track Sales Worldwide in 2006



    Nielsen SoundScan International, the leading information system
    that has tracked worldwide digital music sales since May 2005, has
    added over-the-air full-track digital download (OTA) sales from a
    number of mobile operators in Europe. OTA mobile downloads represent a
    significant portion of digital sales in Europe and, in some countries,
    the majority of digital sales. Most recently, Nielsen SoundScan
    International has added OTA digital sales from Vodafone in Spain and
    Ireland, 3 Mobile in Denmark and Sweden, TDC in Denmark and from
    Telenor in Norway.

    "We are very excited about working with the mobile operators and
    adding over-the-air full-length download sales into our worldwide
    tracking service," states Chris Muratore, Vice President of Retail
    Relations for Nielsen Entertainment. "This is essential for Nielsen
    SoundScan International and continues to provide our clients with the
    most robust information possible on digital music sales in Europe."

    In addition, Nielsen SoundScan International has added Napster,
    eMusic, and Inprodicon as data providers. Napster is providing digital
    download sales for the U.K. and Germany; eMusic is reporting in each
    of the 14 countries it's operating in; and Inprodicon is the leading
    distributor of digital music in the Nordic region, which provides data
    on behalf of nearly 40 digital services in Denmark, Finland, Norway
    and Sweden. With its extensive list of data providers from digital
    services as well as from various leading mobile operators, Nielsen
    SoundScan International data is the only comprehensive aggregation of
    Pan-European digital music sales.

    The addition of these new providers to its European reporting
    panel, along with the existing providers such as iTunes, Sony Connect,
    CDON, Free Record Shop, OD2, and its many affiliates, including MSN,
    Virgin, MTV, and Tiscali, confirms Nielsen SoundScan International's
    dominance as the most comprehensive digital music information system
    worldwide. Nielsen SoundScan International currently tracks digital
    sales data from more than more 170 download services and mobile
    operators in 17 countries including; Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
    Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
    Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
    United Kingdom.

    Since May 2005, Nielsen SoundScan International has monitored more
    than 110 million downloaded tracks in Europe with 81 million occurring
    in 2006. Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Madonna, Gnarls Barkley and Red Hot
    Chili Peppers were the top 5 Pan-European selling artists in 2006.
    Data from Nielsen SoundScan International's digital tracking system
    comprises the only recognized Pan-European Digital Tracks Chart, which
    has been featured weekly in both Music Week and Billboard magazines
    since October 2005.

    Nielsen SoundScan has been the exclusive data source for digital
    music sales in North America since June 2003. In 2006, Nielsen
    SoundScan reported nearly 600 million digital track sales in North
    America, up from 359 million digital track sales in 2005.

    2006 Top 20 Year-End Pan-European Digital Tracks Chart

    (Week Ending: December 31, 2006)

    -0-
    *T
    Artist Title
    ------------------------------- ----------------------------------
    1 Gnarls Barkley Crazy - Single Version
    2 Shakira Hips Don't Lie (Featuring Wyclef
    Jean)
    3 Scissor Sisters I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
    4 Snow Patrol Chasing Cars
    5 Justin Timberlake Sexyback (main version - explicit)
    6 Red Hot Chili Peppers Dani California (Album Version)
    7 Rihanna Unfaithful
    8 Nelly Furtado Maneater
    9 James Morrison You Give Me Something
    10 Christina Aguilera Ain't No Other Man
    11 Mary J. Blige One
    12 Orson No Tomorrow
    13 Take That Patience
    14 Nelly Furtado Promiscuous
    15 Razorlight America
    16 Pink Who Knew
    17 Black Eyed Peas Pump It
    18 Rihanna SOS
    19 Pussycat Dolls Beep
    20 Kelly Clarkson Because of You
    *T

    About Nielsen SoundScan:

    Nielsen SoundScan International, a service of Nielsen
    Entertainment, is the source authority for digital music sales
    information and a sister service of Nielsen SoundScan.

    Nielsen SoundScan is the source authority for retail music sales
    information, aggregating sales data from more than 20,000 retailer
    locations in the U.S., accounting for more than 20 million sales
    transactions per week, representing more than 90% of retail music
    product sales in the U.S. The weekly Billboard Magazine music charts
    are based on Nielsen SoundScan information.

    Nielsen Entertainment is comprised of the following businesses:
    National Research Group (NRG), EDI and EDI International, Television
    Services, SoundScan, Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), RingScan, Music
    Control, VideoScan, Market Navigator, BookScan, BookData, and
    Interactive Entertainment, and utilizes the full portfolio of sister
    companies including Nielsen Media Research (television ratings) and
    Nielsen Net Ratings (Internet usage) to deliver a whole media point of
    view. Nielsen Entertainment is part of the Nielsen Company,
    (www.nielsen.com), a global leader in information services for the
    media and entertainment industries.