MUSICMETRIC PRESS RELEASE / Embargoed until 9am Mon 17 Sept

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Over 3 billion illegal downloads in most in-depth ever study of digital music The most in-depth report on digital music has revealed more than 3 billion songs were downloaded using torrents during the first six months of this year globally. London and Los Angeles-based analyst Musicmetric recorded 405 m torrent downloads globally. More than 378m of these were in the top 50 countries. A torrent can contain a number of songs with around 78 percent recorded as albums and 22 percent, singles. Assuming an album contains 10 tracks, more than 775m songs were downloaded in the USA alone, followed by 347m in the UK. All torrent figures relate to the period from January to June 2012 with a variety of tables expanding on these figures below. Rihannas Talk that Talk was the most downloaded release globally with 1.2m, followed by Billy Vans The Cardigan EP with 1m, Adeles 21 album with 990,000, Gotyes Making Mirrors album with 904,000 and Drakes Take Care mixtape which notched up 860,000 downloads. Musicmetric is the first analyst to crunch music data in such detail. It aggregates download information with social media data enabling record labels to benchmark how their artists perform against industry averages and their peers. The data is part of the first ever Digital Music Index (DMI) which Musicmetric is making available for free from www.musicmetric.com/dmi. As well as file-sharing, the DMI looks at all aspects of digital music consumption which Musicmetric analyses for record labels and broadcasters across the globe. Other key findings of the report included the fact that lower volumes of torrent downloads relative to GDP occured where Spotify and iTunes exist around the world SoundCloud is becoming the new MySpace: artists that had the most plays on SoundCloud a year ago have the most fans across all social media networks today One key trend show in the download figures is the popularity of Billy Van, the American dubstep artist, who was previously unknown before making his music available legally through BitTorrent, by having the content sponsored. (See notes section). **Scroll to the bottom for data tables please credit www.musicmetric.com for data and link to report at www.musicmetric.com/dmi** Gregory Mead, chief executive of Musicmetric, said: Knowing exactly where your fans are has long been a holy grail for record labels. Understanding what drives them to engage will be vital to helping the industry to really prosper in the coming years.

For the first time, we have evidence that blocking Pirate Bay had little effect on BitTorrent downloading. It is also clear however, that availability of streaming services like Spotify does reduce this activity as people have greater access to music they want via legitimate means. The challenge for copyright holders is to find ways to monetise music files torrented online. The potential for converting revenue lost through file trading is not entirely a fairy tale, however it will differ with different genres and life stages of artist. While the file sharing network is largely ignored as a proactive channel, little progress can be made on figuring out how this might be possible. Clarity on the drivers between social media, file sharing and gig activity is what can deliver the industry and in our report these are being put under the microscope for the first time, which could prove a major turning point for the music industry. Matt Mason, executive director at BitTorrent, said: Musicmetrics findings offer a fascinating insight into the realities of the market which are essential if we want to see the music industry get back to its peak. These figures show for the first time that blocking the Pirate Bay had zero effect on piracy. It's short-sighted to think that we can simply tell people to stop and they will. But great data like this will help companies build better services and platforms that empower artists to distribute their work into the BitTorrent ecosystem in ways that make sense for them. Consumers have used the BitTorrent protocol for over decade because it's the best way to move large files. That's true for musicians too. The challenge is building the right business models on top of the technology, which is something we're very committed to here. As a way of sharing large files torrents are massively valuable and we shouldnt forget the vast amount of legal use we have them. In the last month alone, we've worked with the Internet Archive to add 1.5mm pieces of music, books and movies to the BitTorrent ecosystem with the permission and blessing of the creators. The BitTorrent protocol is simply the network through which data flows, not the content itself. But knowing what people are downloading and where is incredibly valuable to labels and artists. The opportunity here lies in creating immersive and innovative packages of content for real music fans and this is something were increasingly doing with global artists like Counting Crows and DJ Shadow. The more people grasp the options at their disposal to better engage with fans through BitTorrent, the quicker well see all the fantastic artists and content creators around us prosper again. Michael Fiebach, CEO of Fame House, said: "We are in a state of transition in the music industry. Monetizing streaming platforms is probably the future for recorded music sales, along with supplementary niche markets like vinyl, CDs, and specialty items. However, we are still very far-off from there being a new sustainable model for recorded music. This creates a situation where the best way to really make money is through touring (and licensing depending on the act). To increase touring revenues, you have to gain significant attention online. File sharing is 1 way to do this. Bittorrent is an ecosystem of music lovers who are seeking content. Why not utilize that as a promotional channel? To me, it is a no-brainer."

Nigel Davies, a partner at London-based Davenport Lyons, a leading music industry law firm, said: These figures bring real context to the downloading debate, although I dont think people always fully appreciate what theyre doing or the damage it does to songwriters and artists the very people music fans wouldnt want to steal from. The holy grail of any form of social media, advertising and sponsorship is a metric to clearly assess the impact of whats happening. Theres no substitute for the huge love fans feel for bands, so being able to measure, analyse and capture it in a positive way is critical - metrics are absolutely vital. There are various measures copyright holders can implement to protect their rights but whats necessary particularly in an increasingly converging world - is a combination of effort using the legal system, education and communication. Theres a missing link between communicating what torrents do and what value they lose. The current trend for production of increasingly enriched content (physical and digital) offers what should be an attractive alternative. The DMI shows having suitable alternatives drives down torrent usage. Theres no doubt about the genius of platforms such as Spotify. They are quick and rich fabulous tools for bringing new music to the attention of different people. If we can better understand the dynamics of the digital market, we will be better placed to navigate through them. Data tables please credit www.Musicmetric.com/dmi Table 1: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 from Jan to June, ranked by total volume Country Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 United States United Kingdom Italy Canada Brazil Australia Spain India France Philippines Mexico Netherlands Portugal Poland Greece Total downloads 96,681,133 43,263,582 33,158,943 23,959,924 19,724,522 19,232,252 10,303,633 8,964,360 8,398,550 8,380,208 7,522,056 6,671,624 5,607,910 5,052,277 4,933,478 Approx Songs+ 775,382,687 346,973,928 265,934,723 192,158,590 158,190,666 154,242,661 82,635,137 71,894,167 67,356,371 67,209,268 60,326,889 53,506,424 44,975,438 40,519,262 39,566,494 Country Population 313,232,044 62,698,362 61,016,804 34,030,586 194,037,075 21,766,711 46,754,784 1,189,172,906 65,102,719 101,833,938 115,017,631 16,847,007 10,760,305 38,441,588 10,760,136

5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 2 8 2 9 3 0 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9 4 0 4

Hungary Chile Romania Sweden Belgium Ireland Germany Israel Russia Norway Argentina Thailand Turkey Algeria Croatia United Arab Emirates Singapore South Africa Finland Malaysia South Korea Saudi Arabia Morocco Switzerland Slovenia Japan

4,460,855 4,213,851 4,155,863 4,083,279 3,878,173 3,434,737 3,281,449 2,874,749 2,831,255 2,827,508 2,802,927 2,640,961 2,568,942 2,339,244 2,305,095 1,986,051 1,952,233 1,854,976 1,702,397 1,660,040 1,641,653 1,546,147 1,524,650 1,476,702 1,416,433 1,373,101

35,776,057 33,795,085 33,330,021 32,747,898 31,102,947 27,546,591 26,317,221 23,055,487 22,706,665 22,676,614 22,479,475 21,180,507 20,602,915 18,760,737 18,486,862 15,928,129 15,656,909 14,876,908 13,653,224 13,313,521 13,166,057 12,400,099 12,227,693 11,843,150 11,359,793 11,012,270

97,976,062 16,888,760 21,904,551 9,088,728 10,431,477 4,670,976 81,471,834 7,473,052 138,739,892 4,691,849 41,769,726 66,720,153 78,785,548 34,586,184 4,483,804 8,264,070 4,740,737 49,004,031 5,259,250 28,728,607 48,754,657 26,161,703 31,968,361 7,639,961 2,000,092 126,475,664

1 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 6 4 7 4 8 4 9 5 0

Austria Indonesia Serbia Egypt Colombia Pakistan China New Zealand Puerto Rico

1,338,287 1,313,495 1,223,308 1,210,463 1,197,248 1,083,145 1,048,722 984,079 846,877

10,733,062 10,534,230 9,810,930 9,707,913 9,601,929 8,686,823 8,410,750 7,892,314 6,791,954

8,217,280 245,613,043 7,310,555 82,079,636 44,725,543 187,342,721 1,336,718,015 4,290,347 3,989,133

+ Song estimate based on Musicmetric data showing 78% of torrents were albums and 22$ singles and an assumption that an album contains 10 songs Table 2: Top 20 global artist releases by BitTorrent download for first half of 2012 Artist 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rihanna Billy Van Adele Gotye Drake Jay-Z / Kanye West 8 Gotye 9 Kimbra 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 Chris Brown Black Keys LMFAO Pitbull Drake Lil Wayne Release title Talk That Talk The Cardigan 21 Making Mirrors Take Care Watch The Throne Somebody That I Used to Know Somebody That I Used to Know F.A.M.E El Camino Sorry For Party Rocking On The Floor The Motto The Motto Release Type Album EP* Album Album Mixtape Album Single Single Album Album Album Single Single Single Global Downloads 1,228,313 1,017,502 990,046 903,603 860,472 766,938 683,123 683,123 662,549 649,641 645,979 632,644 632,340 632,340

1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0

LMFAO Ed Sheeran Jessie J Pretty Lights David Guetta

Party Rock Anthem "+ (Plus)" Who You Are Discography Where Dem Girls At

Single Album Album Discography Single

630,290 608,037 583,169 561,236 555,235

* This was BitTorrent.com featured content which means this new artist Billy Van was promoted by making content available through BitTorrent without any license making it a free legal download Table 3: Top 60 countries ranked by total unique downloads during the first half of 2012 Worldwide 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 United States United Kingdom Italy Brazil Australia Canada India Spain France Mexico Poland Greece Russia Turkey Portugal Sweden Germany Netherlands Chile Belgium Argentina Saudi Arabia Romania Hungary Philippines Thailand South Korea Israel Malaysia Norway Unique downloads six Percentage months Jan - Jun 12 of global 18,690,819 16.9 9,193,593 8.3 8,281,086 7.5 7,096,462 6.4 4,386,232 4.0 4,184,900 3.8 4,003,870 3.6 3,568,069 3.2 3,539,075 3.2 2,287,113 2.1 2,064,847 1.9 1,852,284 1.7 1,771,740 1.6 1,763,755 1.6 1,718,844 1.6 1,508,076 1.4 1,475,373 1.3 1,413,420 1.3 1,367,972 1.2 1,308,089 1.2 1,283,110 1.2 1,121,590 1.0 1,111,064 1.0 1,055,290 1.0 1,003,416 0.9 984,806 0.9 932,611 0.8 867,354 0.8 832,647 0.8 808,058 0.7

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Croatia Ireland Pakistan China South Africa Finland United Arab Emirates Serbia Algeria Egypt Colombia Singapore Japan Austria Switzerland Ukraine Morocco Indonesia Taiwan Iran Denmark New Zealand Vietnam Slovenia Peru Tunisia Venezuela Hong Kong Slovakia Bulgaria

801,748 748,910 735,284 714,208 681,125 675,865 624,319 619,620 573,565 558,446 519,842 509,200 507,323 471,310 464,402 442,792 421,720 413,028 382,666 337,761 333,585 333,430 332,602 315,150 245,692 242,654 240,927 232,061 205,054 204,621

0.7 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2

Total global unique downloads for first half of 20120: 110,594,560 Population data supplied by http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/LICENSE_WC.txt Table 4: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 per capita Country Name Australia Ireland Slovenia Canada United Kingdom Norway Italy Portugal Croatia Greece Total downloads Approx Songs+ Country Populatio 19,232,252 154,242,661 21,766,711 3,434,737 27,546,591 4,670,976 1,416,433 11,359,793 2,000,092 23,959,924 192,158,590 34,030,586 43,263,582 346,973,928 62,698,362 2,827,508 22,676,614 4,691,849 33,158,943 265,934,723 61,016,804 5,607,910 44,975,438 10,760,305 2,305,095 18,486,862 4,483,804 4,933,478 39,566,494 10,760,136

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1

0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 2 8 2 9 3 0 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 3

Sweden Singapore Netherlands Israel Belgium Finland United States Chile United Arab Emirates New Zealand Spain Puerto Rico Switzerland Romania Serbia Austria Poland France Brazil Philippines Algeria Argentina Mexico Saudi Arabia Malaysia Morocco

4,083,279 1,952,233 6,671,624 2,874,749 3,878,173 1,702,397 96,681,133 4,213,851 1,986,051 984,079 10,303,633 846,877 1,476,702 4,155,863 1,223,308 1,338,287 5,052,277 8,398,550 19,724,522 8,380,208 2,339,244 2,802,927 7,522,056 1,546,147 1,660,040 1,524,650

32,747,898 15,656,909 53,506,424 23,055,487 31,102,947 13,653,224 775,382,687 33,795,085 15,928,129 7,892,314 82,635,137 6,791,954 11,843,150 33,330,021 9,810,930 10,733,062 40,519,262 67,356,371 158,190,666 67,209,268 18,760,737 22,479,475 60,326,889 12,400,099 13,313,521 12,227,693

9,088,728 4,740,737 16,847,007 7,473,052 10,431,477 5,259,250 313,232,044 16,888,760 8,264,070 4,290,347 46,754,784 3,989,133 7,639,961 21,904,551 7,310,555 8,217,280 38,441,588 65,102,719 194,037,075 101,833,938 34,586,184 41,769,726 115,017,631 26,161,703 28,728,607 31,968,361

6 3 7 3 8 3 9 4 0 4 1 4 2 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 6 4 7 4 8 4 9 5 0

Hungary Germany Thailand South Africa South Korea Turkey Colombia Russia Egypt Japan India Pakistan Indonesia China

4,460,855 3,281,449 2,640,961 1,854,976 1,641,653 2,568,942 1,197,248 2,831,255 1,210,463 1,373,101 8,964,360 1,083,145 1,313,495 1,048,722

35,776,057 26,317,221 21,180,507 14,876,908 13,166,057 20,602,915 9,601,929 22,706,665 9,707,913 11,012,270 71,894,167 8,686,823 10,534,230 8,410,750

97,976,062 81,471,834 66,720,153 49,004,031 48,754,657 78,785,548 44,725,543 138,739,892 82,079,636 126,475,664 1,189,172,906 187,342,721 245,613,043 1,336,718,015

Tables 5: Top artist releases for top 20 downloading countries ranked by BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 Artist Drake Ed Sheera n Laura Pausini Kanye West Billy Van Hilltop Hoods Pablo Albor Title The Motto Plus Inedito Watch The Throne The Cardigan Tyoe Single Album Single Album Country United States United Kingdom Italy Canada Country Global download total s 458038 63234 0 308477 60803 7 239679 71132 112734 25877 7 76693 8 10175 02 11176 7 13369 8

I Love It En Acustico

EP Brazil (Bittorrent.c om Featured Content) Single Australia Live Album Spain

100143 62167

n Billy Van Sexion d'assa ut Maroon 5 Jesse & Joy Birdy Pablo Albor n Gotye Billy Van Pitbull Los Bunker s Billy Van Laleh Gotye

The Cardigan

L'Apoge Payphone Con Quin Se Queda El Perro? Birdy En Acustico Making Mirrors The Cardigan

EP India (Bittorrent.c om Featured Content) Single France Single Album Album Live Album Album Philippines Mexico Netherlands Portugal Poland

41723

10175 02 83399 51608 7 79906 15383 8 13369 8 90360 3 10175 02 53294 4 25093 10175 02 14494 90360 3

41619 39322 41549 26835 49823 50394 16282

Rain Over Me Musica Libre The Cardigan

EP Greece (Bittorrent.c om Featured Content) Single Hungary Album Chile

16981 19925 22372

Sjung Making Mirrors

EP Romania (Bittorrent.c om Featured Content) Album Sweden Album Belgium

7998 15172

Notes for editors Musicmetric is the trading name of the music analytics product line from Semetric Ltd, registered in London, UK, with offices in London and Los Angeles, USA. Case study around how artists use BitTorrent to promote legal content Whats the sample size? For torrents, the sample size is 18 billlion data points observations of peer to peer activity. How do you track torrents? Musicmetric connects to the BitTorrent network via publicly available torrent files in the same way as the client of any user would. By doing this, Musicmetric, using in-

house proprietary technology, are then able to identify the file, then record the number of BitTorrent users downloading a particular file from the network in each region around the world. File detection is automated, allowing Musicmetric to track the entire sphere of BitTorrent activity. The process is repeated continually and on an hourly basis, allowing fine-grained trends to be tracked over time.