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Global Napster Usage Plummets, but New File-Sharing Alternatives Gaining Ground, Reports Jupiter Media Metrix




While time spent using Napster in the U.S. drops 70 percent, Bodetella,
Audiogalaxy and Imesh become the latest adopted alternatives

Vivendi Universal's Edgar Bronfman, Jr., RealNetworks' Rob Glaser, AOL Music's
Kevin Conroy, Bertelsmann e-Commerce Group's Andreas Schmidt and Napster's
Hank Barry to address the technological and legal forces reshaping the music
industry, July 23-24 at Plug.In in New York City

NEW YORK, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Jupiter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: JMXI), the
global leader in Internet and new technology analysis and measurement, today
reports that total time spent using the Napster file-sharing application
plummeted 65 percent among home users in 14 leading wired countries, from
6.3 billion minutes in February 2001, Napster's peak month in terms of both
time and unique users, to 2.2 billion minutes in June 2001. According to
Media Metrix ratings data, unique users of the application dropped 31 percent,
from 26.4 million to 18.3 million over the same period. These figures
represent more than 85 percent of the worldwide online population and include
usage in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States.
But while Napster usage has plunged globally, recent U.S. data reveal the
early adoption of several new file-sharing alternatives. In May 2001, six
file-sharing applications other than Napster appeared in the Media Metrix U.S.
reports, up from five in March 2001 and up from one in January 2001.
Bodetella, a client designed for the Gnutella network, held steady at around
1.0 million unique users between January 2001 and May. Audiogalaxy, the
second most popular file-sharing application, had 978,000 unique visitors in
May 2001, up 78 percent from March 2001, the first month it was reportable.
Next was Imesh with 474, 000 unique visitors, up 11 percent from April 2001,
its first reportable month.
"Last year Napster became one of the fastest growing software applications
Media Metrix ever reported, with its U.S. user base nearly quadrupling within
six months of the application's debut into the ratings reports," said Doug
McFarland, president, Media Metrix, the online ratings unit of Jupiter Media
Metrix. "Today, the Media Metrix ratings show a wide scattering of the former
Napster audience to various other music file-sharing resources."

Napster's Rise and Fall: The Impact on the Music Industry
"The time the Napster litigation bought the labels has run out and the
grim reality is that Napster's audience is beginning to be fragmented across
many services, which will be very difficult, if not impossible, to litigate
against in the same way," said Mark Mooradian, vice president and senior
analyst, Jupiter Media Metrix. "The next generation of underground file
sharing services underscores the need for legitimate music providers, and not
just the major labels, to act promptly, putting battles over platforms and
copyrights behind them as soon as possible."

More data at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-20-2001/0001537462&...