2007 U.S. Music Purchases Exceed 1.4 Billion

Growth In Overall Music Purchases Exceeds 14%, Digital Music
Accounts for 23% of Music Purchases

Nielsen Music 2007 Year-End Music Industry Report
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(Business Wire)--Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry's data information
system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product,
Nielsen BDS, the music industry's leading music performance monitoring
service, and Nielsen RingScan, which tracks mobile ringtone purchases,
have announced their 2007 U.S. year-end sales and performance
monitoring data for the 52-week period January 1, 2007 through
December 30, 2007.

-0-
*T
OVERALL MUSIC SALES OVERALL ALBUM SALES
----------------------------- -------------------------------
(01/01/07 - 12/30/07) (01/01/07 - 12/30/07)
(ALBUMS,SINGLES, MUSIC VIDEO, (INCLUDES ALL ALBUMS & TRACK
DIGITAL TRACKS - IN EQUIVALENT ALBUMS - IN
MILLIONS) MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % Chg.
----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ------
1,369 1,198 14% 584.9 646.4 -9.5%

TOTAL ALBUM SALES INTERNET ALBUM SALES
----------------------------- -------------------------------
(01/01/07 - 12/30/07) (01/01/07 - 12/30/07)
(INCLUDES CD, CS, LP, DIGITAL (PHYSICAL ALBUM PURCHASES VIA
ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS) E-COMMERCE SITES, IN MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % Chg.
----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ------
500.5 588.2 -15% 30.1 29.4 2.4%

DIGITAL TRACK SALES DIGITAL ALBUM SALES
----------------------------- -------------------------------
(01/01/2007 - 12/30/2007 - IN (01/01/2007 - 12/30/2007 - IN
MILLIONS) MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % CHG. UNITS SOLD 2007 2006 % CHG.
----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ------
844.2 581.9 45% 50.0 32.6 53%
*T

-0-
*T
CURRENT VS. CATALOG ALBUM
2007 GENRE ALBUM SALES REPORT SALES
------------------------------------------ ---------------------------
(01/01/07-12/30/07 - IN THOUSANDS) (01/01/07-12/30/07 - IN
MILLIONS)

Overall
Genre 2007 2006 % Chg. Albums 2007 2006 % Chg.
------------------- ------- ------- ------ -------- ----- ----- ------
Alternative 88,604 109,672 -19.2% Current 306.4 363.9 -16%
Christian/Gospel(a) 34,017 39,715 -14.3% Catalog 194.1 224.2 -13%
Deep
Classical 18,044 19,447 -7.2% Catalog 138.7 158.2 -12%
Country 62,696 74,886 -16.3%
Physical
Jazz 14,047 15,720 -10.6% Albums: 2007 2006 % Chg.
-------- ----- ----- ------
Latin 31,853 37,774 -15.6% Current 279.3 345.3 -19%
Metal 52,951 61,557 -13.9% Catalog 171.2 210.2 -19%
Deep
New Age 3,210 3,412 -5.9% Catalog 122.7 148.4 -17%
R&B 95,555 117,005 -18.3%
Digital
Rap 41,662 59,534 -30.0% Albums: 2007 2006 % Chg.
-------- ----- ----- ------
Rock 149,414 170,726 -12.5% Current 27.1 18.6 46%
Soundtrack 24,570 27,177 -9.5% Catalog 22.9 14.0 64%
(Note: Titles may appear in more Deep
than one genre.) Catalog 16.0 9.8 63%
(a) Sales figures tracked by
Christian SoundScan
*T

-0-
*T
2007 YEAR-TO-DATE RECORD COMPANY MARKET SHARE (1/01/07 - 12/30/07)
(reflects the market share for the entire entity including sub-
distributed companies)

TOTAL ALBUMS CURRENT ALBUMS CATALOG ALBUMS
-------------------------- --------------------- ---------------------
(Catalog & Current Titles)

2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
UMG 31.90% 31.61% UMG 34.48% 34.37% UMG 27.81% 27.14%
BMG 11.11% 11.95% BMG 12.60% 13.71% BMG 8.74% 9.08%
SONY 13.86% 15.49% SONY 12.52% 14.42% SONY 15.98% 17.23%
SONYBMG SONYBMG SONYBMG
Total 24.97% 27.44% Total 25.12% 28.13% Total 24.72% 26.31%
WMG 20.28% 18.14% WMG 19.12% 16.85% WMG 22.12% 20.25%
EMI 9.37% 10.20% EMI 8.31% 9.23% EMI 11.05% 11.77%
OTHERS 13.48% 12.61% OTHERS 12.97% 11.43% OTHERS 14.30% 14.52%
*T

-0-
*T
2007 YEAR-TO-DATE RECORD COMPANY MARKET SHARE continued...(1/01/07 -
12/30/07)
(reflects the market share for the entire entity including sub-
distributed companies)

DIGITAL ALBUMS DIGITAL TRACKS
---------------------------- -------------------------------

2007 2006 2007 2006
------- ------ -------- --------
UMG 22.98% 27.35% UMG 33.75% 32.96%
BMG 9.06% 10.25% BMG 9.02% 12.21%
SONY 13.80% 13.75% SONY 14.17% 13.45%
SONYBMG Total 22.86% 24.00% SONYBMG Total 23.19% 25.66%
WMG 22.98% 23.29% WMG 20.50% 19.69%
EMI 10.80% 9.99% EMI 7.74% 7.93%
OTHERS 15.67% 15.37% OTHERS 14.83% 13.75%
*T

-0-
*T
2007 TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS 2007 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS
----------------------------------- --------------------------------
(based on Album sales from
(01/01/2007-12/30/2007) 01/01/2007-12/30/2007)

Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold
-------------------- ---------- ---------------- -----------
1 Noel / Josh Groban 3,699,000 1 Josh Groban 4,835,000
--------------------
2 Soundtrack / High 2 Hannah Montana 3,854,000
School Musical 2 2,957,000
--------------------
3 Long Road Out of 3 Eagles 3,583,000
Eden / Eagles 2,608,000
--------------------
4 As I Am / Alicia 4 Carrie Underwood 3,231,000
Keys 2,543,000
--------------------
5 Daughtry / Daughtry 2,497,000 5 Rascal Flatts 3,129,000
--------------------
6 Soundtrack/ Hannah 6 Alicia Keys 2,699,000
Montana 2: Meet
Miley 2,489,000
--------------------
7 Minutes To Midnight 7 Linkin Park 2,624,000
/ Linkin Park 2,099,000
--------------------
8 Dutchess / Fergie 2,064,000 8 Michael Buble 2,530,000
--------------------
9 Taylor Swift / 9 Daughtry 2,506,000
Taylor Swift 1,951,000
--------------------
10. Graduation / Kanye 10. Tim McGraw 2,369,000
West 1,892,000
--------------------
*T

-0-
*T
2007 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL SONGS 2007 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL
ARTISTS
---------------------------------- ---------------------------------
(combines all versions of the same (based on digital track sales
Song:01/01/2007-12/30/2007) from 01/01/2007 - 12/30/2007)

Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold
------------------- ---------- ---------------- ------------
1 Crank That/ Soulja 1 Fergie 7,537,000
Boy Tell'Em 2,909,000
-------------------
2 Hey There Delilah/ 2 Timbaland 5,933,000
Plain White T's 2,566,000
-------------------
3 Big Girls Don't 3 Rihanna 5,547,000
Cry/ Fergie 2,525,000
-------------------
4 Girlfriend/ Avril 4 Justin 5,412,000
Lavigne 2,415,000 Timberlake
-------------------
5 Apologize/ 5 Akon 5,275,000
Timbaland feat.
Onerepublic 2,371,000
-------------------
6 Umbrella/ Rihanna 2,359,000 6 Avril Lavigne 5,044,000
-------------------
7 Stronger/ Kanye 7 Nickelback 4,835,000
West 2,328,000
-------------------
8 Sweet Escape/ Gwen 8 Kanye West 4,674,000
Stefani 2,251,000
-------------------
9 Glamorous/ Fergie 9 Fall Out Boy 4,423,000
feat. Ludacris 2,169,000
-------------------
10. Way I Are/ 10. Linkin Park 4,317,000
Timbaland feat.
Keri Hilson & Jo 1,943,000
-------------------
*T

-0-
*T
2007 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ALBUMS
TRACKS
---------------------------------- ----------------------------------
(01/01/07 - 12/30/2007) (01/01/2007-12/30/2007)

Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold
------------------- ---------- ------------------ -----------
1 Crank That/ Soulja 1 It Won't Be Soon
Boy Tell'Em 2,714,000 Before Long/
Maroon 5 252,000
------------------- ------------------
2 Big Girls Don't 2 Back To Black/ Amy
Cry/ Fergie 2,440,000 Winehouse 241,000
------------------- ------------------
3 Sweet Escape/ Gwen 3 Graduation/ Kanye
Stefani 2,168,000 West 237,000
------------------- ------------------
4 Apologize/ 4 Coco/ Colbie
Timbaland feat. Caillat
OneRepublic 2,113,000 207,000
------------------- ------------------
5 Way I Are/ 5 Daughtry/ Daughtry
Timbaland 1,870,000 205,000
------------------- ------------------
6 Makes Me Wonder/ 6 Minutes To
Maroon 5 1,845,000 Midnight/ Linkin
Park 189,000
------------------- ------------------
7 Hey There Delilah/ 7 Soundtrack/ High
Plain White T's 1,844,000 School Musical 2 176,000
------------------- ------------------
8 Stronger/ Kanye 8 Timbaland Presents
West 1,788,000 Shock Value/
Timbaland 151,000
------------------- ------------------
9 Bubbly/ Colbie 9 Continuum/ John
Caillat 1,731,000 Mayer 137,000
------------------- ------------------
10. Buy U A Drank/ T- 10. Futuresex/Love
Pain feat. Yung Sounds/ Justin
Joc 1,702,000 Timberlake 137,000
------------------- ------------------
*T

-0-
*T
2007 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS OF TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS OF SOUNDSCAN
SOUNDSCAN ERA ERA
------------------------------- ------------------------------------
(1991-12/30/2007) (1991 - 12/30/2007)

Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold
---------------- ---------- --------------------- ----------
1 Garth Brooks 67,402,000 1 Come On Over/ Shania
Twain 15,449,000
---------------------
2 Beatles 55,695,000 2 Metallica/ Metallica 15,077,000
---------------------
3 Mariah Carey 49,937,000 3 Jagged Little Pill/
Alanis Morissette 14,557,000
---------------------
4 Celine Dion 49,692,000 4 Millennium/
Backstreet Boys 12,099,000
---------------------
5 Metallica 48,670,000 5 Soundtrack/ Bodyguard 11,798,000
---------------------
6 George Strait 39,171,000 6 Supernatural/ Santana 11,643,000
---------------------
7 Tim McGraw 36,413,000 7 Human Clay/ Creed 11,504,000
---------------------
8 Alan Jackson 35,266,000 8 No Strings Attached/
N Sync 11,104,000
---------------------
9 Pink Floyd 34,453,000 9 Beatles 1/ Beatles 11,097,000
---------------------
10. Shania Twain 33,531,000 10. Falling Into You/
Celine Dion 10,768,000
---------------------
*T

2007 Year End Factoids:

-- Music purchases in 2007 reached 1.4 Billion, the third
consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.2
billion (2006) vs. 1 billion (2005).

-- Music sales exceeded 58.4 million in the final week of 2007,
representing the biggest sales week in the history of Nielsen
SoundScan. The previous record was Christmas week 2006 with
47.4 million music purchases.

-- Overall Album sales (including Albums and Track Equivalent
Album sales) declined 9.5% compared to 2006.

-- Total album sales declined 15% compared to 2006.

-- Consistent with the previous three years, 20% of total album
sales occurred during the Holiday Season (last 6 weeks of
year).

-0-
*T
Digital Factoids:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- More than 840 million digital tracks were purchased during 2007; an
increase of 45% over 2006.
-- Digital album sales reached the 50 million for 2007; up 53% over
the previous year and accounted for 10% of total album sales compared
to 5.5% in 2006.
-- In the final reporting week of 2007 the following sales records
were broken:
-- Digital track sales surpassed 42.9 million. The previous sales
record was 30.1 million, week of 12/24 -12/31/06.
-- Digital album sales this week fell just shy of the two million
mark with sales of 1,920,000 sales; breaking the previous record
of 1.2 million (12/31/06).
-- Flo Rida's track "Low feat. T-Pain" set the mark for the
biggest selling week for an individual Digital Track, with sales
of 467,000 (previous record was Rihanna's "Umbrella at 276,000
sales). Note that Chris Brown's "Kiss Kiss" track sold 277,000
downloads which also broke the previous record held by Rihanna.
-- The first time a digital song (combining all versions of the
same song) sold more than 300,000 downloads in a week. Flo Rida's
song "Low feat. T-Pain" is the new record holder for biggest
selling week for a Digital Song with sales of 467,000 this week.
Fergie's "Fergalicious" held the previous record with sales of
295,000. Timbaland's digital song "Apologize" also broke the
previous record with sales of 319,000 this week.
-- In 2007, there were 9 different digital songs with sales that
exceeded 2 million compared to one in 2006 ("Bad Day" by Daniel
Powter - 2,015,000).
-- 41 Digital Songs exceeded the 1 million sales mark for the year
compared to 22 digital songs in 2006 and only 2 digital songs in
2005.
-- Fergie was the biggest selling digital artist in 2007 with 7.5
million track sales.
-- There were more than 390,000 different physical albums that sold at
least one copy over the Internet during 2007.
-- Physical Internet album sales reached a new record high with sales
of 30.1 million unit sales; an increase of 2% over 2006 year-end
total (29.1).
*T

Best Seller Factoids:

-- Josh Groban was the biggest selling solo artist, with sales
greater than 4.8 million albums and the Eagles were the
biggest selling group in 2007 with sales of 3.6 million.

-- Josh Groban's Noel was the biggest selling album of the year
with 3.7 million sales. It's the first time in the history of
Nielsen SoundScan that a "seasonal/holiday" album held the top
position on the year-end chart. Noel is also the first
"seasonal/holiday" album to sell more than 3 million units in
a year. The previous high for a "seasonal/holiday" album for a
year was Kenny G's Miracles: A Holiday Album back in 1994
which sold 2,986,000 copies.

Strata Factoids:

-- Album sales at Non-Traditional music outlets experienced
significant growth with sales approaching the 90 million mark.
Non-traditional outlets accounted for 18% of all album sales,
compared to 12% in 2006, 9% in 2005 and 5% in 2004 (4% in
2003).

-- 40% of all albums purchased were at a Mass Merchant outlet
compared to 41% in 2006, 40% in 2005 and 38% in 2004 (35% in
2003 and 34% in 2002).

-- Chain music stores for the first time accounted for less than
40% of all album sales; 36% compared to 41% in 2006, 45% in
2005 and 48% in 2004.

-- Album sales at Independent music stores remained consistent
from a year ago; accounting for 6% of all album sales (7% in
2005 and 9% in 2004).

Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (Nielsen BDS), the music industry's
leading music performance monitoring service, has announced the most
played songs at radio, at video, as well as Internet music streams for
2007.

-0-
*T
Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Most Played Songs Nielsen BDS: 2007 Top 10
Artist Airplay
-------------------------------------- -----------------------------

Title/Artist Detections Artist Detections
--------------------- ------------ ------------- -----------
1 Big Girls Don't Cry/ 1 Nickelback 1,137,738
Fergie 436,984
2 Say It Right/ Nelly 2 Daughtry 991,916
Furtado 434,024
3 The Sweet Escape/ 3 Rascal Flatts 988,154
Gwen Stefani
feat.Akon 427,413
4 Irreplaceable/ 4 Kenny Chesney 954,833
Irreemplazable/
Beyonce 412,647
5 Before He Cheats/ 5 Toby Keith 923,641
Carrie Underwood 400,875
6 It's Not Over/ 6 Tim McGraw 903,088
Daughtry 398,628
7 Buy U A Drank/ T-Pain 7 Justin
feat. Yung Joc 393,852 Timberlake 896,362
8 Umbrella/ Rihanna 8 George Strait 881,326
feat. Jay-Z 381,873
9 How To Save A Life/ 9 Carrie
Fray 374,114 Underwood 838,961
10. Home/ Daughtry 357,005 10. Maroon 5 736,359
*T

-0-
*T
Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Music Video Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Internet
Internet Streams Streamed Songs
---------------------------------- ---------------------------------

Title/Artist Streams Title/Artist Streams
------------------- ---------- ------------------ ----------
1 Girlfriend/ Avril 1 Irreplaceable/
Lavigne 23,101,224 Irreemplazable/
Beyonce 11,002,278
2 Beautiful 2 Before He Cheats/
Liar/Bello Carrie Underwood 10,554,700
Embustero/ Beyonce
& Shakira 14,500,809
3 Umbrella/ Rihanna 3 Buy U A Drank/ T-
feat. Jay-Z 14,486,237 Pain feat Yung
Joc 9,955,555
4 Glamorous/ Fergie 4 What Goes
feat. Ludacris 11,570,238 Around..Comes
Around/ Justin
Timberlake 9,369,781
5 Big Girls Don't 5 Wait for You/
Cry/ Fergie 11,418,888 Elliott Yamin 9,105,982
6 What Goes 6 Makes Me Wonder/
Around...Comes../ Maroon 5 9,096,993
Justin Timberlake 10,983,682
7 Hips Don't Lie/ 7 Girlfriend/ Avril
Shakira feat Lavigne 8,945,400
Wyclef Jean 10,009,270
8 Say It Right/ Nelly 8 Hey There Delilah/
Furtado 9,882,779 Plain White T's 8,917,887
9 Never Again/ Kelly 9 It's Not Over/
Clarkson 9,444,161 Daughtry 8,827,093
10. Que Hiciste/ 10. Runaway Love/
Jennifer Lopez 9,281,430 Ludacris feat
Mary J. Blige 8,672,380
*T

-0-
*T
Nielsen RingScan has announced the Top Selling Mastertones and
Polyphonic ringtones for 2007.

Nielsen RingScan: Top 10 Mastertones Nielsen RingScan: Top 10
Polyphonic Ringtones
------------------------------------ -------------------------------
(Partial year - 01/01/2007- (01/01/2007-12/30/2007)
12/30/2007)

Title/Artist Sales Title/Artist Sales
--------------------- ---------- ------------------- -------
1 Buy U A Drank/ T-Pain 2,308,769 1 Super Mario Bros./
Koji Kondo 153,591
2 This Is Why I'm Hot/ 2 Candy Shop/ 50 Cent 126,196
Mims 2,101,723
3 Crank That (Soulja 3 Rockstar/
Boy)/ Soulja Boy 2,010,714 Nickelback 125,124
4 Party Like A Rock 4 Pink Panther/ Henry
Star/ Shop Boyz 1,782,709 Mancini 124,978
5 Don't Matter/ Akon 1,500,555 5 Irreplaceable/
Beyonce 121,746
6 Pop, Lock & Drop It/ 6 What Hurts the
Huey 1,421,830 Most/ Rascal
Flatts 121,209
7 A Bay Bay/ Hurricane 7 Because I Got High/
Chris 1,420,621 Afroman 120,429
8 Beautiful Girls/ Sean 8 Crazy B/ Buck
Kingston 1,415,022 Cherry 117,886
9 Rockstar/ Nickelback 1,269,715 9 Poppin'/ Chris
Brown feat Jay Biz 111,032
10. Shawty/ Plies feat. 10. Best Friend/ 50
T-Pain 1,171,518 Cent 96,774
*T

Nielsen RingScan Factoids:

-- There were 220 million ringtone purchases in 2007 resulting in
sales of $567 million.

-- During the last week of the year (Christmas week), ringtone
purchases increased by 22% over the previous week (consistent
with sales spike during the last week of 2006).

-- Mastertone purchases accounted for 91% of all ringtone sales
in 2007.

-- The top 100 Mastertone ringers sold 65.1 million, accounting
for 30% of all ringtone sales for the year.

Scoop Marketing
Larry Solters, Anna Loynes
213-639-6167

Copyright Business Wire 2008