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The Nielsen Company Expands its Music Streaming Measurement to Include Vevo, Slacker, MOG, Thumbplay, Akoo & Cricket

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^{Published in Science and Technology on Tuesday, March 8th 2011 at 16:50 GMT by Market Wire}  

NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--The Nielsen Company (NYSE:NLSN), a global leader in providing insights into what consumers watch and buy, today announced a significant expansion of its streaming panel, adding well known services including Vevo, Slacker, MOG, Thumbplay, Akoo, and Cricket. Data from these services, and from the existing reporting panel consisting of AOL, Napster, Rhapsody, Verizon Wireless and Yahoo!, is now included in the Nielsen BDS Encore system.

"Over the past six months, we have actively added more Internet-based music services to the BDS streaming panel, providing clients and the music industry with a ever more comprehensive view of online music consumption"

During the first six weeks of 2011, Nielsen tracked more than 1.1 billion music streams through online music streaming services. More than 165 million streams per week are captured and nearly 26 million weekly song downloads are tracked. The week following the GRAMMY Awards, Nielsen captured more than 192 million streams; an increase of 22% over the previous week.

aOver the past six months, we have actively added more Internet-based music services to the BDS streaming panel, providing clients and the music industry with a ever more comprehensive view of online music consumption,a states Chris Muratore, Vice President of Merchant Services and Emerging Growth for Nielsen Entertainment. aAdding Vevo, Slacker, MOG, Thumbplay, Akoo and Cricket, allows us to offer weekly aggregated streaming charts and analytics better representing all online activity.a

Nielsen is the only company able to provide weekly trending information on streaming activity, as well as a more granular understanding of from where consumers stream music. Nielsen also provides insights on the type of streams; on-demand streams, those songs/videos that consumers choose to listen to, versus programmed streams, or when songs are not chosen by the consumer.

Additionally, only Nielsen provides the music industry with comprehensive physical and digital music sales information, radio airplay as well as streaming activity.

• Nielsen BDS has tracked streaming activity from AOL and Yahoo! for the past three years and added Napster and Rhapsody April 2010.
• Nielsen SoundScan is the only service measuring all digital music sales from every major digital service in the U.S. and Canada, as well as all full-track downloads purchased through mobile devices in the U.S.
• Nielsen SoundScan tracks physical sales in the U.S. and Canada, digital sales in U.S. and Canada as well as in 30+ countries worldwide including most major music markets around the world.
• Nielsen BDS & Music Control currently monitor music from more than 1,700 terrestrial and satellite radio stations in real time in the U.S. and Canada, and more than 700 stations across 20 European countries and Mexico.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related assets. The company has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information on The Nielsen Company, visit [ www.nielsen.com ].

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