As the piracy saga continues with the “six strikes”
initiative coming soon to the United States and news that BMG is looking to
cash in on $20 settlements with alleged file sharers, it’s worth taking a look
at just how big illegal file sharing really is these days. According to data
collected by the monitoring firm Musicmetric, it’s still pretty rampant,
especially in the United States – which has more total files shared than
anywhere else in the world by a huge margin.
The Top 20 Countries With The Most Illegal Music Downloads
1. United States: 96,868,398 (most popular artist: Drake)
2. United Kingdom: 43,314,568 (most popular artist: Ed Sheeran)
3. Italy: 33,226,258 (most popular artist: Laura Pausini)
4. Canada: 23,953,053 (most popular artist: Kayne West)
5. Brazil: 19,677,596 (most popular artist: Billy Van*)
6. Australia: 19,103,047 (most popular artist: Hilltop Hoods)
7. Spain: 10,306,829 (most popular artist: Pablo Alboran)
8. India: 8,965, 271 (most popular artist: Billy Van*)
9. France: 8,400,869 (most popular artist: Sexion d’assaut)
10. Philippines: 8,351,260 (most popular artist: Maroon 5)
11. Mexico: 7,522,865 (most popular artist: Jesse y Joy)
12. Netherlands: 6,671,428 (most popular artist: Birdy)
13. Portugal: 5,587,198 (most popular artist: Pablo Alboran)
14. Poland: 5,029,204 (most popular artist: Gotye)
15. Greece: 4,919,567 (most popular artist: Billy Van*)
16. Hungary: 4,470,948 (most popular artist: Pitbull)
17. Chile: 4,210,641 (most popular artist: Los Bunkers)
18. Romania: 4,152,252 (most popular artist: Billy Van*)
19. Sweden: 4,074,594 (most popular artist: Laleh)
20. Belgium: 3,880,900 (most popular artist: Gotye)
*Unlike others on this list, Billy Van allows his music to be downloaded via torrents and encourages donations from fans (see the case study here).
—
Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud
