Evidence that piracy may boost sales

I have recently been pointed in the direction of some interesting research indicating that the publicity generated by 'piracy' may actually negate the negatives, particularly for artists (thanks Peng Tiong). 

 The study followed a sample of 16 000 internet users from 5 different European Union countries throughout 2011. The study tracked demographic characteristics, and also identified specific visits to music related websites, both legal and illegal. In the report researchers state that the results: 'present no evidence of sales displacement,' and that piracy does not, in fact, displace legal music downloads. Instead, findings suggest that illegal streaming may actually boost sales.

 The study has been conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and the results have been published in a paper entitled ‘Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data.’ Also see 'Music piracy surprisingly good for business, study claims' for a related article summarising findings.


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