DIGITAL MUSIC INDEX LAUNCHES DEBATE OVER 3bn ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS

Global torrents top 3bn song downloads according to most in-depth study of digital music

The most in-depth report on digital music has revealed more than 3 billion songs were downloaded using torrents during the first six months of this year globally.

London and Los Angeles-based analyst Musicmetric recorded 405 m torrent downloads globally. More than 378m of these were in the top 50 countries. A torrent can contain a number of songs with around 78 percent recorded as albums and 22 percent, singles.

Assuming an album contains 10 tracks, more than 775m songs were downloaded in the USA alone, followed by 347m in the UK.

All torrent figures relate to the period from January to June 2012 with a variety of tables expanding on these figures below.

Rihanna’s ‘Talk that Talk’ was the most downloaded release globally with 1.2m, followed by Billy Van’s ‘The Cardigan’ EP with 1m, Adele’s ‘21’ album with 990,000, Gotye’s ‘Making Mirrors’ album with 904,000 and Drake’s ‘Take Care’ mixtape which notched up 860,000 downloads.

Musicmetric is the first analyst to crunch music data in such detail. It aggregates download information with social media data enabling record labels to benchmark how their artists perform against industry averages and their peers.

The data is part of the first ever Digital Music Index (DMI) which Musicmetric is making available for free from www.musicmetric.com/dmi. As well as file-sharing, the DMI looks at all aspects of digital music consumption which Musicmetric analyses for record labels and broadcasters across the globe.

Other key findings of the report included the fact that lower volumes of torrent downloads relative to GDP occured where Spotify and iTunes exist around the world

SoundCloud is becoming the ‘new MySpace’: artists that had the most plays on SoundCloud a year ago have the most fans across all social media networks today

One key trend show in the download figures is the popularity of Billy Van, the American dubstep artist, who was previously unknown before making his music available – legally – through BitTorrent, by having the content sponsored. (See notes section).

**Scroll to the bottom for data tables – please credit www.musicmetric.com for data and link to report at www.musicmetric.com/dmi**

Gregory Mead, chief executive of Musicmetric, said:

“Knowing exactly where your fans are has long been a holy grail for record labels. Understanding what drives them to engage will be vital to helping the industry to really prosper in the coming years.

“For the first time, we have evidence that blocking Pirate Bay had little effect on BitTorrent downloading. It is also clear however, that availability of streaming services like Spotify does reduce this activity as people have greater access to music they want via legitimate means.

“The challenge for copyright holders is to find ways to monetise music files torrented online. The potential for converting revenue lost through file trading is not entirely a fairy tale, however it will differ with different genres and life stages of artist.

“While the file sharing network is largely ignored as a proactive channel, little progress can be made on figuring out how this might be possible.

“Clarity on the drivers between social media, file sharing and gig activity is what can deliver the industry and in our report these are being put under the microscope for the first time, which could prove a major turning point for the music industry.”

Matt Mason, executive director at BitTorrent, said:

“Musicmetric’s findings offer a fascinating insight into the realities of the market which are essential if we want to see the music industry get back to its peak. These figures show for the first time that blocking the Pirate Bay had zero effect on piracy. It’s short-sighted to think that we can simply tell people to stop and they will. But great data like this will help companies build better services and platforms that empower artists to distribute their work into the BitTorrent ecosystem in ways that make sense for them. Consumers have used the BitTorrent protocol for over decade because it’s the best way to move large files. That’s true for musicians too. The challenge is building the right business models on top of the technology, which is something we’re very committed to here.

“As a way of sharing large files torrents are massively valuable and we shouldn’t forget the vast amount of legal use we have them. In the last month alone, we’ve worked with the Internet Archive to add 1.5mm pieces of music, books and movies to the BitTorrent ecosystem with the permission and blessing of the creators. The BitTorrent protocol is simply the network through which data flows, not the content itself. But knowing what people are downloading and where is incredibly valuable to labels and artists.

“The opportunity here lies in creating immersive and innovative packages of content for real music fans – and this is something we’re increasingly doing with global artists like Counting Crows and DJ Shadow. The more people grasp the options at their disposal to better engage with fans through BitTorrent, the quicker we’ll see all the fantastic artists and content creators around us prosper again.”

Michael Fiebach, CEO of Fame House, said:

“We are in a state of transition in the music industry. Monetizing streaming platforms is probably the future for recorded music sales, along with supplementary niche markets like vinyl, CDs, and specialty items.  However, we are still very far-off from there being a new sustainable model for recorded music. This creates a situation where the best way to really make money is through touring (and licensing depending on the act).  To increase touring revenues, you have to gain significant attention online.  File sharing is 1 way to do this.  Bittorrent is an ecosystem of music lovers who are seeking content.  Why not utilize that as a promotional channel?  To me, it is a no-brainer.”

Nigel Davies, a partner at London-based Davenport Lyons, a leading music industry law firm, said:

“These figures bring real context to the downloading debate, although I don’t think people always fully appreciate what they’re doing or the damage it does to songwriters and artists – the very people music fans wouldn’t want to steal from.

“The holy grail of any form of social media, advertising and sponsorship is a metric to clearly assess the impact of what’s happening. There’s no substitute for the huge love fans feel for bands, so being able to measure, analyse and capture it in a positive way is critical – metrics are absolutely vital.

“There are various measures copyright holders can implement to protect their rights but what’s necessary – particularly in an increasingly converging world – is a combination of effort using the legal system, education and communication. There’s a missing link between communicating what torrents do and what value they lose.

“The current trend for production of  increasingly enriched content (physical and digital) offers what should be an attractive alternative. The DMI shows having suitable alternatives drives down torrent usage.  There’s no doubt about the genius of platforms such as Spotify.  They are  quick and rich –  fabulous tools for bringing new music to the attention of different people.

“If we can better understand the dynamics of the digital market, we will be better placed to navigate through them.”

Data tables – please credit www.Musicmetric.com/dmi

Table 1: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 from Jan to June, ranked by total volume

+ ­ Song estimate based on Musicmetric data showing 78% of torrents were albums and 22$ singles and an assumption that an album contains 10 songs

Table 2: Top 20 global artist releases by BitTorrent download for first half of 2012

* This was BitTorrent.com featured content – which means this new artist Billy Van was promoted by making content available through BitTorrent without any license – making it a ‘free legal download’

Table 3: Top 60 countries ranked by total unique downloads during the first half of 2012

Total global unique downloads for first half of 20120: 110,594,560

Population data supplied by http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/LICENSE_WC.txt

Table 4: Top 50 countries for total BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012 per capita

Tables 5: Top artist releases for top 20 downloading countries ranked by BitTorrent downloads during first half of 2012

Musicmetric is the trading name of the music analytics product line from Semetric Ltd, registered in London, UK, with offices in London and Los Angeles, USA.

Case study around how artists use BitTorrent to promote legal content

What’s the sample size?

For torrents, the sample size is 18 billlion data points – observations of peer to peer activity.

How do you track torrents?

Musicmetric connects to the BitTorrent network via publicly available torrent files in the same way as the client of any user would. By doing this, Musicmetric, using in-house proprietary technology, are then able to identify the file, then record the number of BitTorrent users downloading a particular file from the network in each region around the world. File detection is automated, allowing Musicmetric to track the entire sphere of BitTorrent activity. The process is repeated continually and on an hourly basis, allowing fine-grained trends to be tracked over time.