RECORDING - Music Software Popularity Index

Digital Music Doctor announces the results of the Music Software Internet Popularity Index for Fourth Quarter 2006. DigiDesign Pro Tools holds a commanding lead in first place followed by Steinberg Cubase in second. The third and forth place products, Adobe Audition and FL Studio, are still better known on the Internet by their former names, Cool Edit and Fruity Loops respectively. The most significant change this quarter was Ableton Live which ranked in the top ten annual average for the first time.

The ten most popular music software products on the Internet, based on recent search engine activity are:

DigiDesign Pro Tools 6.95
Steinberg Cubase 3.96
Adobe Audition 2.93
FL Studio 2.59
Sony Sound Forge 1.77
Cakewalk Sonar 1.77
Apple GarageBand 1.75
Sony Acid 1.66
Band-in-a-Box 0.84
Ableton Live 0.79

This index is based on a three-month average of Internet search activity on Google, Yahoo, AOL & MSN. Collectively these 4 search engines represent more than 94 percent of the searches on the Internet. Over 150 search terms are used to construct this index, and 20 music software products are tracked quarterly.

Looking at the index over the past year, Pro Tools, Cubase, and Audition have consistently been the front runners. However, there has been a fair amount of volatility in the other positions. The most significant change this quarter was Ableton Live which ranked in the top ten overall average for the first time. Ableton Live replaced Apple Logic Pro based on the overall annual average, although it ranked in the eleventh position for the fourth quarter.

Additional details on the results of the Music Software Popularity Index are available at the Digital Music Doctor website, http://www.digitalmusicdoctor.com/popularity.htm.