New Research Shows Consumers Suffering From Digital Music Overload

New Research Shows Consumers Suffering From Digital Music Overload

Soundflavor helps put consumers in control of digital music

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As digital music sales continue to climb at unprecedented rates, consumers are having trouble taking advantage of all the music in their growing collections and finding new music that they like online, according to a nationwide survey of 1,000 digital music users commissioned by Soundflavor and conducted by Insight Express.

The survey was conducted to gain a better understanding of the difficulties consumers experience when interacting with digital music. Data collected showed:

-- The average digital music collection is substantial:
Nearly half (49 percent) of digital music users have more than 500
songs stored on their computer or laptop.
-- Digital music users are not listening to all of the songs that they
like:
64 percent note that they have a lot of music that they like but
forget to play.
-- Digital music users have trouble finding new music online:
41 percent say they have a hard time finding new music that they like
when shopping online.
-- Retailers are missing out on a key opportunity to sell music:
84 percent of respondents would purchase more music if they found
more if it that they liked.
-- Digital music users want help building playlists and finding new music:
67 percent said that they would use a service that helps them shop
for new music and create playlists based on music that they like.

"We buy and collect music that we love, but as our music collections grow, we forget what we have," said Steve Skrzyniarz, founder and CEO of Soundflavor, a leading digital music search and recommendation company. "While digital music has given consumers instant access to play or buy songs that they love, it's difficult to browse through large collections of individual songs -- in your personal song library, or worse, when shopping in today's online music stores, which carry millions of songs. At the end of the day, it's just too much for consumers to handle without help."

Not only is difficulty finding new music online frustrating for consumers, it equals missed opportunities for retailers. "Consumers clearly want to buy more music, they're just having a lot of trouble finding what they're looking for," said Pete Budlong, vice president of sales and business development for Soundflavor.

Help Is On The Way

On October 4, 2006, Soundflavor released Soundflavor DJ, digital music software that helps iTunes users quickly create great playlists, rediscover the songs in their library, and discover new music based on songs that they already like.

"Soundflavor DJ is an answer to consumers' digital music frustrations," said Skrzyniarz. "Just play a song or playlist that represents a sound that you're after, and Soundflavor DJ will play other songs from your library that are similar."

Soundflavor DJ is powered by the Soundflavor Music Recommendation Engine, which is based on more than six years of research spanning nearly every music genre. Hundreds of thousands of songs were analyzed, recording hundreds of attributes for each, resulting in extremely accurate recommendations that yield significant consumer and commercial benefits.

Soundflavor's Music Recommendation Engine, currently deployed commercially, can be licensed to help businesses increase revenues by more accurately connecting people with music.

The nationwide survey of 1,000 digital music users was conducted by Insight Express via the Internet from June 8-12, 2006.

About Soundflavor, Inc.

Soundflavor, Inc. is a digital music company providing industry-leading music search and recommendation products to both music professionals and consumers. The company's recommendations are based on more than six years of research, and span hundreds of genres, eras, and countries. The Soundflavor Music Recommendation Engine is available for licensing to enable consumer and commercial music companies to provide their customers with the ability to discover, sample, and purchase music more efficiently.

Soundflavor is based in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.soundflavor.com.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Soundflavor, Inc.

CONTACT: Brian Baumley of Cohn & Wolfe, +1-212-798-9813 or
brian_baumley@cohnwolfe.com, for Soundflavor, Inc.

Web site: http://www.soundflavor.com/

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