Research: Internet Piracy Doesn't Damage Music Industry

A new study published by the European Commission Joint Research Centre found that online piracy is not hurting legitimate sales of digital music products. The researchers studied the behavior of 16,000 Europeans and found that there is a positive relationship between Internet piracy and visits on legal music stores. The study concludes that the music industry does not have to worry about pirates.

Such studies will be implemented in various forms and dimensions. All of them are designed to give an answer to the question: "Does piracy damages legal sales? ". It seems to be that the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, which is part of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, decided to put an end to this issue. With data from more than 16,000 European Internet users they determined which effect using of a pirated sites has on visiting online music stores.

"It seems to be that the majority of music products consumed illegally would not be bought legally, also if the users had no access to the sites where it can be downloaded for free"- researchers say.

I think copyright holders should read the conclusion of the research several times thoughtfully, because the study underlines that every user, who illegally downloads the audio file, is equivalent to the user, who would pay money for this content.

In addition, the researchers reported that free streaming services such as Spotify, have a stimulating effect on the sales of digital production.

However, even though the results bring clarity and the conclusion is obvious, the researchers do not wish to make any specific policy recommendations to the copyright holders, they only point out that the music industry does not have to worry about online piracy.

"The research results and the collected data show that copyright owners from the music industry should not see online piracy as a growing concern. In addition, our results show that the consumption of newest music via streaming services has a positive impact. "

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), in turn, called the European Commission study "erroneous and misleading", saying that "Internet pirates do not buy music, they just download it in large volumes and spread it all over the world. This behaviour damages sales." The representative of IFPI also added that a direct violation of copyright brings damage for the musicians and has absolutely no any positive impact on legal sales.