Piracy is not all that bad for musicians. In fact, research has shown that less popular artists actually profit from piracy. This can be concluded from, and is supported by several studies. Frustrated as they are, the music industry claims that they lose millions a year due to piracy, but is this really the case?
Two facts:
- Album sales are declining.
- 75% of all artists profit from filesharing.
We will try to explain these two seemingly contradicting facts, and list three factors that may help us understand what’s going on…
Artists sell more albums thanks to piracy
Several studies have shown that most artists actually profit from unauthorized sharing of files. They sell more albums because people have the opportunity to download songs and entire albums for free. A study by Blackburn (2004), a PhD student from Harvard, found that the 75% of the artist actually profit from piracy. Blackburn reports that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, the remaining 75% of all artists actually profit from filesharing. The same pattern was found by Pedersen (2006, see graph), who analyzed the change in royalties paid by the Nordisk Copyright Bureau between 2001 and 2005.
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I must add this article to my favorites and shove it in the brown spot of those who say that musicians are loosing money
Now the top 25% are rich enough because of the ppl who bought their music… Time for some charity and give something to those who put them where they are. Freaking bitches can’t buy a new plane because i downloaded their cd for free.
Money rules their world huh? Oh well they rule my world too and “a penny saved is a penny gained”