Illegal downloading cost UK music industry nearly £1bn in 2010
Illegal music downloading cost the UK industry the best part of £1bn in 2010, according to figures released today by industry trade body the BPI.
Research by Harris Interactive for the BPI shows that 1.2 billion digital music tracks – just under three out of four – were illegally acquired this year.
That is more than the entire number of individual tracks ever to be downloaded legally in the UK to date, says the BPI.
It says sales of digital singles could top 160 million in 2010, beating last year's figure of 149.7 million. Digital services accounted for just under 25% of UK record industry revenue in September of this year, up from 19.2% a year earlier.
Harris Interactive found that nearly one in three Britons with internet access between the ages of 16 and 54 are engaged in some form of illegal downloading activity. The cost to the UK music industry of illegal downloading is £984m in lost retail sales, claims the BPI.
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Comments
I echo bobchiba's comment. That rediculous figure obviously assumes that every illegal download is replacing a legal purchase. Most serial downloaders I know wouldn't dream of paying for a download or buying a cd, even if it means going without the music they're after. I'd venture that most don't even listen to everything they download.
The price of a recently released album in the UK is just too high. Period. It doesn't stop me buying them, but I do tend to wait a few weeks until they appear at a reduced cost.
It looks like the BPI have just pulled a figure out of thin air. I bought LPs (artwork and lyrics), Cassettes and CDs (no booklet or lyrics)yet they don't reduce the list price. I prefer buying DVDs and Blurays now. It was nice to see Rob Plant in the Coop in Kidder.
Firstly bobchiba, you can't be serious. Are you saying no-one downloads anything they don't like? Please, get real.
Secondly how on earth does the BPI (British Phonograhic Industry?) get to that figure? Again this can't be taken seriously.
Record companies should stop charging CD prices for MP3 downloads. Then they might see a drop in illegal/unpaid downloads.
Hi superaintit, yeh I see what you are saying, I have friends who do the same, as you say movies and hits series from the states.
I personally like to pay for stuff, but I like a physical disc that's not a copy, except for my legally downloaded iTunes stuff.
The industry needs to stop assuming that people who download tracks for free would buy them otherwise. They also need to stop giving us cd albums that are mastered for radio and contain nothing but a poor jewel case and an inlay. When u look back at how lovely some vinyl records were in their artwork and sleeves and the freebies you would get with them when it was a popular medium, I don't think people who love music would have downloaded illegaly if it was available then.
Does Apple i-tunes download this artist single for free equate to this hypothesis? If so and the rest of music media that lets us include random freebies. Have these been included in this survey?
Hi Mark,
Based on my own and friends experience I would say 50% do not download illegally. Simply because they don't want all the hassle and virusses that come with illegal downloading. Some download occasionally and also buy cds.
I personally feel cds are on the decline because it's an old technology that's past it's peak appeal. Would you pay 20 euro's or pounds 20 years after the first introduction of dvd? I think not. At least I wouldn't. That's why I download high res files at 88.khz 24 bit. Much better quality and usually cheaper then cds too.
The only people I know of that download a lot illegally are actually focussed on movies and particularly blu-ray and the newest episode of a series.
I don't illegally down load anything, am I alone in this?