HITWISE UK MUSIC UPDATE

Old Favourites Genesis, George Michael and The Beatles join Keane and Il Divo Among Fastest Growing Bands Online in the Run-Up to Christmas.

London, 29^th November 2006

Analysis from Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reveals that old favourites Genesis, George Michael and The Beatles have joined Il Divo and Keane as the fastest growing bands online in the lead-up to Christmas.

With the Genesis "Turn It On Again" comeback tour selling out in just 90 minutes, interest has been high online for the reunited band. Visits to the band's website (www.genesis-music.com) were up 50 fold in the past eight weeks and searches for Genesis have risen from a base of zero eight weeks ago to become the #1 search term sending visits to Bands and Artists websites.

The band's website is directing fans to ticketing websites, with 42% of downstream visits going to websites in the Ticketing category last week. More than one quarter (27%) of downstream visits from the site went directly to Ticketmaster UK (www.ticketmaster.co.uk).

Il Divo's well-timed release of their album Siempre has resulted in a surge in interest, both for their new album and their upcoming tour. Searches for 'il divo' surged six-fold in the past eight weeks and visits to the band's website (www.ildivo.com) were up three-fold. The prominent link on the band's homepage to pre-order the upcoming album at Amazon UK (www.amazon.co.uk) seems to be receiving significant attention, with 9% of the site's downstream visits going to Amazon UK last week.

The websites for George Michael (www.georgemichael.com) and The Beatles (www.thebeatles.com) were also among the fastest movers over the past eight weeks, with visits up three-fold and four-fold respectively following the release of their albums, 25 and Love. Keane's entry into the top 10 Music and Bands category followed the announcement of their upcoming tour in February.

Hitwise UK: Top 10 Bands & Artists Websites
Based On Share of UK Internet Visits, Week to 25^th November 2006

Music Retailers Gain from Music Activity Online and HMV.co.uk Posts Strong Gains

Music retailers are also benefiting from the flurry of album releases in the lead up to Christmas. Visits to the Shopping and Classifieds Music category were up 45% in the past eight weeks and up 3% year-on-year. Play.com, the dominant player in the category, captured 31% of category visits in the week ending 25^th November, whilst HMV.co.uk ranked at #2 and captured 13% of category visits. Play.com also became the #2 website in the latest IMRG-Hitwise Hot Shops List published last week, which named it as the #2 retailer online in the UK in October.

HMV.co.uk is showing strong performance online in the lead-up to Christmas with the retailer's newly designed website and aggressive search engine marketing paying off in attracting site visits. Visits to HMV were up 83% last week year-on-year and up 84% over the past eight weeks. HMV.co.uk received two thirds of its site visits from search engines last week and analysis of the search terms sending visits to the website reveal that the music retailer's success is not just about music. Among the top search terms sending visits to the website are searches for popular games consoles including the Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and 3, the Nintendo WII and the Xbox 360.

"HMV's gains so far this year is part of a broader trend of high street retailers gaining online in the run-up to Christmas" said Heather Hopkins VP of Research for Hitwise UK. "Last year, many high street brands were playing catch-up to pure-plays. This year, we are witnessing a resurgence for high street retailers, who have adapted pricing, customer service and marketing to the reality of the way consumers now shop."

Hitwise UK: Top 10 Shopping & Classifieds Music Websites
Based on Share of UK Internet Visits, Week to 25^th November 2006

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,200 global clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement, and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise is a privately held company headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com.

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