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Music Pirates Spend More on Tunes Than Non-Pirates, Finds Poll

by Caleb Johnson on November 3, 2009 at 07:28 AM

In their never-ending game of finger pointing, music executives have blamed everyone and everything under the sun for the industry's woes. But after learning about a new study from the U.K., the suits might have one less scapegoat, and a little more cause for concern.

According to the Independent, a new poll commissioned by Demos, a U.K. think tank, found that people who admit to illegally downloading music on the Internet (10-percent of respondents) actually spend more money on music than their non-pirating counterparts. On average, one of these pirates spends about $126 a year on music, while the average respondent who said they don't pirate only spends around $54.

This could be bad news for the U.K. government's plans to crack down on illegal file sharing. Also, it's not good for the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) fight against file sharing, either. Although similar findings haven't been reported in the U.S., we'd bet the trend would hold true here, too. With Congress already telling the RIAA to hold off on more file-sharing lawsuits, this could severely damage the argument that piracy is the primary cause of slumping album sales. In fact, file-sharers might be largely propping up the few sales that remain.

Maybe music executives should focus on finding convenient, inexpensive routes to quality tunes, instead of pressuring the government to spank their best customers on the backside. [From: The Independent]

Tags: business, download, filesharing, government, illegal, internet, music, piracy, riaa, top, web

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