The state of music piracy: in-depth data from new global report

Music Metric Rihanna’s Talk That Talk was the most-pirated album in the world in the first half of 2012, according to new data which you can read in-depth here.

Musicmetric’s inaugural Digital Music Index studies the extent of illegal file-sharing across the UK and the rest of the world in the six months to end of Jun 2012.

The research covers music file-sharing patterns via BitTorrent over the six month period. finding that illegal-filesharing topped 33 million albums and 10 million singles in the UK.

Ed Sheeran was identified as the most downloaded artist across the majority of the cities sampled, although the singer has previously expressed a sense of ease over his debut album + being illegally downloaded eight times for every legitimate purchase.

Check out the numbers after the jump! [MusicWeek] [expand title=”More” swaptitle=”Less” trigpos=”below”]

The full analysis and commentary can be found here with the raw UK and global data below:

Top 20 UK cities for the first half of 2012 based on BitTorrent downloads over that period arranged per capita:

City Downloads over 6 month period

Manchester 1,317,012
Nottingham 598,621
Southampton 480,151
Liverpool 927,535
Sheffield 748,301
Leicester 487,406
Stoke-on-trent 380,872
Glasgow 1,037,934
Cardiff 348,603
Leeds 566,589
Bristol 424,790
Edinburgh 519,736
Wolverhampton 257,840
Derby 195,632
Reading 190,053
Bradford 233,339
Kingston upon Hull 256,479
Birmingham 803,741
Coventry 198,481
London 4,565,502

The Top 20 albums downloaded in the UK in the first 6 months of 2012 by total torrent downloads during the entire first six months of 2012:

Ed Sheeran – + (Plus)
Rizzle Kicks – Stereo Typical
Rihanna – Talk That Talk
Jessie J – Who You Are
Olly Murs – In Case You Didn’t Know
Emeli Sandé – Our Version of Events
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
Chase & Status – No More Idols
Chris Brown – F.A.M.E
Gotye – Making Mirrors
Noel Gallagher – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Drake – Take Care
Adele – 21
Kanye West – Watch The Throne
Beyoncé – 4
Snow Patrol – Fallen Empires
The Script – Science & Faith
James Morrison – The Awakening
JLS – Jukebox
Florence and The Machine – Ceremonials

Global

Table 1: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 from Jan to June, ranked by total volume

	Country Name	Total downloads	Approx Songs+	Country Population
1	United States	96,681,133	775,382,687	313,232,044
2	United Kingdom	43,263,582	346,973,928	62,698,362
3	Italy	33,158,943	265,934,723	61,016,804
4	Canada	23,959,924	192,158,590	34,030,586
5	Brazil	19,724,522	158,190,666	194,037,075
6	Australia	19,232,252	154,242,661	21,766,711
7	Spain	10,303,633	82,635,137	46,754,784
8	India	8,964,360	71,894,167	1,189,172,906
9	France	8,398,550	67,356,371	65,102,719
10	Philippines	8,380,208	67,209,268	101,833,938
11	Mexico	7,522,056	60,326,889	115,017,631
12	Netherlands	6,671,624	53,506,424	16,847,007
13	Portugal	5,607,910	44,975,438	10,760,305
14	Poland	5,052,277	40,519,262	38,441,588
15	Greece	4,933,478	39,566,494	10,760,136
16	Hungary	4,460,855	35,776,057	97,976,062
17	Chile	4,213,851	33,795,085	16,888,760
18	Romania	4,155,863	33,330,021	21,904,551
19	Sweden	4,083,279	32,747,898	9,088,728
20	Belgium	3,878,173	31,102,947	10,431,477
21	Ireland	3,434,737	27,546,591	4,670,976
22	Germany	3,281,449	26,317,221	81,471,834
23	Israel	2,874,749	23,055,487	7,473,052
24	Russia	2,831,255	22,706,665	138,739,892
25	Norway	2,827,508	22,676,614	4,691,849
26	Argentina	2,802,927	22,479,475	41,769,726
27	Thailand	2,640,961	21,180,507	66,720,153
28	Turkey	2,568,942	20,602,915	78,785,548
29	Algeria	2,339,244	18,760,737	34,586,184
30	Croatia	2,305,095	18,486,862	4,483,804
31	United Arab Emirates	1,986,051	15,928,129	8,264,070
32	Singapore	1,952,233	15,656,909	4,740,737
33	South Africa	1,854,976	14,876,908	49,004,031
34	Finland	1,702,397	13,653,224	5,259,250
35	Malaysia	1,660,040	13,313,521	28,728,607
36	South Korea	1,641,653	13,166,057	48,754,657
37	Saudi Arabia	1,546,147	12,400,099	26,161,703
38	Morocco	1,524,650	12,227,693	31,968,361
39	Switzerland	1,476,702	11,843,150	7,639,961
40	Slovenia	1,416,433	11,359,793	2,000,092
41	Japan	1,373,101	11,012,270	126,475,664
42	Austria	1,338,287	10,733,062	8,217,280
43	Indonesia	1,313,495	10,534,230	245,613,043
44	Serbia	1,223,308	9,810,930	7,310,555
45	Egypt	1,210,463	9,707,913	82,079,636
46	Colombia	1,197,248	9,601,929	44,725,543
47	Pakistan	1,083,145	8,686,823	187,342,721
48	China	1,048,722	8,410,750	1,336,718,015
49	New Zealand	984,079	7,892,314	4,290,347
50	Puerto Rico	846,877	6,791,954	3,989,133

+  Song estimate based on Musicmetric data showing 78% of torrents were albums and 22$ singles and an assumption that an album contains 10 songs

Table 2: Top 20 global artist releases by BitTorrent download for first half of 2012

	Artist	Release title	Release Type	Global Downloads
1	Rihanna	Talk That Talk	Album	1,228,313
2	Billy Van	The Cardigan	EP*	1,017,502
3	Adele	21	Album	990,046
4	Gotye	Making Mirrors	Album	903,603
5	Drake	Take Care	Mixtape	860,472
6	Jay-Z / Kanye West	Watch The Throne	Album	766,938
8	Gotye	Somebody That I Used to Know	Single	683,123
9	Kimbra	Somebody That I Used to Know	Single	683,123
10	Chris Brown	F.A.M.E	Album	662,549
11	Black Keys	El Camino	Album	649,641
12	LMFAO	Sorry For Party Rocking	Album	645,979
13	Pitbull	On The Floor	Single	632,644
14	Drake	The Motto	Single	632,340
15	Lil Wayne	The Motto	Single	632,340
16	LMFAO	Party Rock Anthem	Single	630,290
17	Ed Sheeran	“+ (Plus)”	Album	608,037
18	Jessie J	Who You Are	Album	583,169
19	Pretty Lights	Discography	Discography	561,236
20	David Guetta	Where Dem Girls At	Single	555,235

* This was BitTorrent.com featured content – which means this new artist Billy Van was promoted by making content available through BitTorrent without any license – making it a ‘free legal download’

Table 3: Top 60 countries ranked by total unique downloads during the first half of 2012

	Worldwide	Unique downloads six months Jan – Jun ‘12	Percentage of global
1	United States	18,690,819	16.9
2	United Kingdom	9,193,593	8.3
3	Italy	8,281,086	7.5
4	Brazil	7,096,462	6.4
5	Australia	4,386,232	4.0
6	Canada	4,184,900	3.8
7	India	4,003,870	3.6
8	Spain	3,568,069	3.2
9	France	3,539,075	3.2
10	Mexico	2,287,113	2.1
11	Poland	2,064,847	1.9
12	Greece	1,852,284	1.7
13	Russia	1,771,740	1.6
14	Turkey	1,763,755	1.6
15	Portugal	1,718,844	1.6
16	Sweden	1,508,076	1.4
17	Germany	1,475,373	1.3
18	Netherlands	1,413,420	1.3
19	Chile	1,367,972	1.2
20	Belgium	1,308,089	1.2
21	Argentina	1,283,110	1.2
22	Saudi Arabia	1,121,590	1.0
23	Romania	1,111,064	1.0
24	Hungary	1,055,290	1.0
25	Philippines	1,003,416	0.9
26	Thailand	984,806	0.9
27	South Korea	932,611	0.8
28	Israel	867,354	0.8
29	Malaysia	832,647	0.8
30	Norway	808,058	0.7
31	Croatia	801,748	0.7
32	Ireland	748,910	0.7
33	Pakistan	735,284	0.7
34	China	714,208	0.6
35	South Africa	681,125	0.6
36	Finland	675,865	0.6
37	United Arab Emirates	624,319	0.6
38	Serbia	619,620	0.6
39	Algeria	573,565	0.5
40	Egypt	558,446	0.5
41	Colombia	519,842	0.5
42	Singapore	509,200	0.5
43	Japan	507,323	0.5
44	Austria	471,310	0.4
45	Switzerland	464,402	0.4
46	Ukraine	442,792	0.4
47	Morocco	421,720	0.4
48	Indonesia	413,028	0.4
49	Taiwan	382,666	0.3
50	Iran	337,761	0.3
51	Denmark	333,585	0.3
52	New Zealand	333,430	0.3
53	Vietnam	332,602	0.3
54	Slovenia	315,150	0.3
55	Peru	245,692	0.2
56	Tunisia	242,654	0.2
57	Venezuela	240,927	0.2
58	Hong Kong	232,061	0.2
59	Slovakia	205,054	0.2
60	Bulgaria	204,621	0.2

Total global unique downloads for first half of 2012: 110,594,560

Population data supplied by http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/LICENSE_WC.txt

Table 4: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 per capita

	Country Name	Total downloads	Approx Songs+	Country Populatio
1	Australia	19,232,252	154,242,661	21,766,711
2	Ireland	3,434,737	27,546,591	4,670,976
3	Slovenia	1,416,433	11,359,793	2,000,092
4	Canada	23,959,924	192,158,590	34,030,586
5	United Kingdom	43,263,582	346,973,928	62,698,362
6	Norway	2,827,508	22,676,614	4,691,849
7	Italy	33,158,943	265,934,723	61,016,804
8	Portugal	5,607,910	44,975,438	10,760,305
9	Croatia	2,305,095	18,486,862	4,483,804
10	Greece	4,933,478	39,566,494	10,760,136
11	Sweden	4,083,279	32,747,898	9,088,728
12	Singapore	1,952,233	15,656,909	4,740,737
13	Netherlands	6,671,624	53,506,424	16,847,007
14	Israel	2,874,749	23,055,487	7,473,052
15	Belgium	3,878,173	31,102,947	10,431,477
16	Finland	1,702,397	13,653,224	5,259,250
17	United States	96,681,133	775,382,687	313,232,044
18	Chile	4,213,851	33,795,085	16,888,760
19	United Arab Emirates	1,986,051	15,928,129	8,264,070
20	New Zealand	984,079	7,892,314	4,290,347
21	Spain	10,303,633	82,635,137	46,754,784
22	Puerto Rico	846,877	6,791,954	3,989,133
23	Switzerland	1,476,702	11,843,150	7,639,961
24	Romania	4,155,863	33,330,021	21,904,551
25	Serbia	1,223,308	9,810,930	7,310,555
26	Austria	1,338,287	10,733,062	8,217,280
27	Poland	5,052,277	40,519,262	38,441,588
28	France	8,398,550	67,356,371	65,102,719
29	Brazil	19,724,522	158,190,666	194,037,075
30	Philippines	8,380,208	67,209,268	101,833,938
31	Algeria	2,339,244	18,760,737	34,586,184
32	Argentina	2,802,927	22,479,475	41,769,726
33	Mexico	7,522,056	60,326,889	115,017,631
34	Saudi Arabia	1,546,147	12,400,099	26,161,703
35	Malaysia	1,660,040	13,313,521	28,728,607
36	Morocco	1,524,650	12,227,693	31,968,361
37	Hungary	4,460,855	35,776,057	97,976,062
38	Germany	3,281,449	26,317,221	81,471,834
39	Thailand	2,640,961	21,180,507	66,720,153
40	South Africa	1,854,976	14,876,908	49,004,031
41	South Korea	1,641,653	13,166,057	48,754,657
42	Turkey	2,568,942	20,602,915	78,785,548
43	Colombia	1,197,248	9,601,929	44,725,543
44	Russia	2,831,255	22,706,665	138,739,892
45	Egypt	1,210,463	9,707,913	82,079,636
46	Japan	1,373,101	11,012,270	126,475,664
47	India	8,964,360	71,894,167	1,189,172,906
48	Pakistan	1,083,145	8,686,823	187,342,721
49	Indonesia	1,313,495	10,534,230	245,613,043
50	China	1,048,722	8,410,750	1,336,718,015

[/expand]

AUDIOKORNER

The state of music piracy: in-depth data from new global report

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