MySpace Gaining on Itunes as Music Brand

Key findings from the Brandscape study include:

* For many brands, awareness remained consistent in 2006. For a handful of services, however, the year brought significant gains or losses.

o Among American Downloaders aged 12 and older, iTunes gained significantly in both unaided and aided awareness over 2005 , moving from 57% to 66% for total awareness.

o Meanwhile, Napster experienced some erosion in awareness, dropping from 79% to 68% total awareness.

o Awareness of Yahoo! Music increased over the past year, with total awareness reaching 53% (up from 49% in 2005).

o Perhaps the most significant development this year was the strong gain in awareness of MySpace, which jumped from 16% to 54% in just one year.

o NOTE: The study was conducted prior to the launch of Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace.