- AKA
- The Man, V
sauceFile-sharing sites help make popular acts more popular, finds a study.
The research, by industry body PRS for Music, showed the most pirated pop songs tend to be those at the top of the music charts.
There was little evidence that file-sharing sites helped unsigned and new bands find an audience, it found.
It suggests file-sharing sites are becoming an alternative broadcast network comparable to radio stations as a way of hearing music.
...
Mr Page and Mr Garland suggest that file-sharing sites are reinforcing divisions in the music world and only making the popular more popular.
Despite this, the report said, the fact that music was free on file-sharing networks meant people did occasionally listen to bands they had never heard of before.
By contrast, on sites where people have to pay to listen they only download the tracks they know they want.
"If the sellers sell it, it might never be bought; but if the swappers offer it, at least one person will likely take it," said the study.
Given this, said the authors, it might be worth music companies regarding file-sharing sites as comparable to radio and TV as a broadcast network.
Of course, they'd sell even more records if they didn't piss people like me off by prosecuting six-year-old kids and eighty-year-old grandmothers for downloading music in the first place.
Discuss.