Study Names Manchester UK's Piracy Capital

Monitoring service Musicmetric has conducted a study on piracy around the world, revealing that the UK's number one city for piracy is Manchester. The data was collected as part of Musicmetric's Digital Music Index, an effort to analyse the preferences and tastes of music lovers. The data shows that the UK illegally shared 43 million albums and singles in the first six months of 2012 alone. Of the 43 million albums and singles, 78 percent were full albums while 22 percent were singles.

Despite the fact that sites like Newzbin2 are blocked by major ISPs in the United Kingdom, Musicmetric's study shows that the UK is second only to the United States in terms of downloads. The company said its data comes from worldwide BitTorrent trends. According to the data, seen exclusively by the BBC, Ed Sheeran was the most pirated act in the UK for the first half of 2012. Rizzle Kicks and Rihanna came in at number two and three, respectively.

Speaking to the BBC, Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry, highlighted the fact that Musicmetric's data puts illegal downloads ahead of legal purchases.

"According to their data, there are more illegal downloads in the UK still than there are legal purchases," Taylor is quoted as saying. [It] compares to about 240 million tracks that were sold legally. A lot of people are getting very rich from stealing other people's things."

Interestingly enough, Musicmetric reports that 'The Cardigan' EP by Bill Van is the number torrent being downloaded in five of the top 20 countries by downloads. This EP is licensed for distribution via BitTorrent, which again brings the debate back to piracy being a service problem as opposed to a pricing problem.

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  • greghome
    Again, I still think these record companies are just hyping things up.

    The companies and artist still make millions even with the amount of "pirates" , they're just sad that not every record release can match last seasons sales when the artist these days are popping out more and more crap (Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj....etc ).

    They're kinda like Apple once you think about it,
    they're done competing and will just settle with blaming other sources even though it's their inability to release a good product that has cost them profit.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    And in later news the police state of England will tap all communications and install a camera in every wc!
    Reply
  • and now Rihana can only afford 4 mansions not 5... o poor Rihana... you're broke due to piracy....
    Reply
  • JohnMD1022
    Manchester is also one of the European centers of Muslim dominance and unrest.

    Coincidence?
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I could swear that the Chinese were the proud owners of the "piracy title".
    Reply
  • zzz_b
    And I thought that all they have is the 2 soccer teams... :)
    Reply
  • Pherule
    Good for you, UK peeps. Way to tell the UK government to stick it where the sun don't shine for what they did to The Pirate Bay.
    Reply
  • iceman1992
    randomderpherpand now Rihana can only afford 4 mansions not 5... o poor Rihana... you're broke due to piracy....Yeah 4 instead of 5 mansions a month
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    JohnMD1022Manchester is also one of the European centers of Muslim dominance and unrest.Coincidence?As someone who is from Manchester, I can say you are talking shite
    Reply
  • deksman
    It doesn't matter that the companies are over-hyping things (the numbers and overall situation)...
    We still live in a monetary system, and their primary concern are profits.

    Not that it would matter either way... because those who pirated the songs and everything else probably would never waste their time on 'buying' it even if pirating wasn't an option.

    Besides, as it was already mentioned, studios and artists still rake in millions... but it doesn't matter.
    They operate within the monetary system, and in such a system, greed is promoted and applauded (even though its nothing more than learned behavior that twists peoples perceptions and values).
    Reply