Another day, another dollar to music piracy- this time, an in-depth report from Musicmetric places Manchester at the top of the file-sharing league and reveals that Ed Sheeran is the most illegally downloaded artist in the UK.
The ‘Digital Music Index’ is based on music file-sharing patterns via BitTorrent over the first six months of this year, revealing that 33 million albums and 10 million singles have been downloaded in the UK; over twice as many albums as were legally purchased in the same period. Looks like the Pirate Bay block is working out well then!
Musicmetric CEO Gregory Mead touched upon that very issue in a statement, saying: "For the first time, we have evidence that blocking Pirate Bay had little effect on BitTorrent downloading. It is also clear however, that availability of streaming services like Spotify does reduce this activity as people have greater access to music they want via legitimate means”.
Mead also said: "Clarity on the drivers between social media, file sharing and gig activity is what can deliver the industry and in our report these are being put under the microscope for the first time, which could prove a major turning point for the music industry.”
That’s an interesting statement, though most of the coverage around the report focused on that depressing Ed Sheeran statistic, with albums from Rizzle Kicks, Rihanna (the most downloaded artist globally), Jessie J and Olly Murs also in the top five.
The report also identified the top 20 geographical areas for downloading across the UK in the first half of the year, with London at 20 and Manchester taking the top title, followed by Nottingham, Southampton, Liverpool and Sheffield.
You can read the in-depth stats over at Music Week.
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