A 2006 UK Digital Music Survey by Entertainment Media Research reports that social networking sites (such as MySpace) play a big part in the music habits of teenagers. Fifty seven percent said networking sites had an impact on which music they purchase, 31 percent have bought downloads or CDs of music they found online and 12 percent regularly download free music. Forty-nine percent regularly recommend artists to others and 57 percent have discovered music they say they love. The research report is available online in PDF format here. The conclusion: creating and maintaining an online presence on MySpace, Bebo, etc is not just a fun thing to try if you’re an indie artist, it’s becoming an essential marketing tool for all artists. When the Snocap/MySpace venture starts selling music directly from MySpace artists to MySpace’s audience, we may yet see Apple’s iTunes Store challenged for the position of #5 worldwide in music retailing (Steve Jobs announced today they were #5 and on track to overtake Amazon at #4 by the end of the year.)