Mobile Music Usage Rises in Europe

U.S. Lags Behind Europe with Nearly Half as Many Mobile Users Listening to Music

LONDON, U.K., May 20, 2010 - comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) today released data from the comScore MobiLens service which showed that 23.8 percent of mobile users across five leading European mobile markets (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) listened to music on their mobile handsets during the three month period ending March 2010. The 54 million total mobile music users in the EU5 countries represent a 10 percent increase in the past year.

Spain led the way with 30 percent of mobile users listening to music from their primary handsets followed by Germany with 25.8 percent. The U.K., known for its affinity for music, actually falls slightly behind the average in EU5 with 22.6 percent penetration of mobile users. Listening to music on mobile phones was least popular in France and Italy, with 21 percent of both markets engaged in this activity. The U.S., in contrast, lags far behind all EU5 countries with only 13.2 percent of the mobile population using mobile handsets to listen to music.

Mobile is an Ideal Channel for Music Publishers and Promoters

Germany led all EU5 countries in downloading music directly to mobile handsets with more than 1 million mobile music downloaders in March 2010, while also demonstrating the fastest growth rate at 102 percent. Italy ranked as the second fastest growing market (up 92 percent) followed by France (up 50 percent). Once again, growth in the EU5 countries significantly outpaced the U.S., which grew just 10 percent to 4 million users.

"Despite rapid growth in mobile music downloaders in Europe, the total addressable market in the EU5 is still quite small. However we see a significant untapped advertising opportunity for music publishers and promoters. People who listen to music on their phones are more likely to browse the Internet and almost half own smartphones," says Alistair Hill, senior analyst at comScore. "The high penetration of smartphones and likelihood to browse shows how ideal this audience is for targeted mobile advertising. The mobile channel offers an opportunity to get in front of consumers at one of their primary access points for music consumption."

Other notable findings about Europe's mobile music market from March 2010 include:

Of the 54 million users listening to music on a mobile device in the EU5:

* 42 percent have a smartphone compared to 25 percent of the total mobile subscribers
* 47 percent browse the mobile internet compared to 25 percent of the total mobile subscribers
* 85 percent of those who listened to music on their phone, listen to 'sideloaded' music (loaded from a PC)
* 8 percent of those who listened to music on their phone, have downloaded it direct to their device

Source: comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR)