Study finds that file sharers buy more music than anyone else

A lot of people think that file sharers and other Bittorrent downloaders never pay for music or other forms of digital media. It’s an understandable stereotype, but according to a study, it’s not all true. It turns out that file sharers actually buy 30% more music than those who don’t download content illegally.

You’ve probably heard the gripe from multiple music labels about how piracy is translating to billions of dollars of lost revenue, citing that the more people who illegally download content, the less likely they are to buy the content. However, the American Assembly, which is a non-partisan public policy forum affiliated with Columbia University, published part of its upcoming Copy Culture Survey that sheds a little light on this “issue.”

The study focuses on the digital music collections of different users and how they obtained the music in their collection. The study found that not only do file sharers have larger music collections compared to others (predictably so), but file sharers also buy more music legally than those who don’t illegally download.

The explanation for this isn’t too tricky. A lot of file sharers use Bittorrent and P2P services as a way to sample music first and then decide if they want to buy a certain song or album. It’s a pretty solid system, and the study even says a lot of the music that users get for free simply come from friends through physical media as well — such as borrowing a CD and ripping the files to your computer.

[via TorrentFreak]

Study finds that file sharers buy more music than anyone else is written by SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Related posts

Latest posts

Review: Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro retains iPad Air design, brings more power

With the Pad 7 Pro, Xiaomi is basically delivering the same design and battery as the regular model, but as

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge vs. Google Pixel 9 Pro XL: Form factor or function?

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge comes with an unreal form factor, but plenty of compromises too. For the same price,

Will the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 be waterproof?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 should have improved waterproofing but if not, an IP48 rating should be present as

Will the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 support Qi2 wireless charging?

The Galaxy S25 series is Qi2 ready but this only works via a compatible case. Will the Galaxy Z Flip

Will the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 support Qi2 wireless charging?

Samsung brought some Qi2 support to the Galaxy S25 series earlier this year, but will the Galaxy Z Fold 7

Adobe Photoshop finally launches on Android

Photoshop's beta is officially rolling out to Android phones today, and it's free on the Play Store.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is getting Qi2.1, but don’t get too excited

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 appeared in the WPC database, and is likely to support Qi2.1. Still, it probably

Public Notebooks are coming to NotebookLM for easy sharing and studying

NotebookLM is making shared study help more accessible with public notebooks, which are ways to share view-only experiences with others.

Nintendo Switch’s Android app gets a huge update ahead of a Switch 2 summer

Nintendo updated its parental control app days before the Switch 2 is set to launch.

iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air ProMotion Rumors Disputed by Leaker

A Chinese leaker with a mixed track record for accurate predictions has today disputed claims that the regular iPhone 17