Music piracy in Europe down 75% since 2017- is online piracy flattening?
New EU data study reveals piracy levels have been stabilising since 2021.
Copyright infringement continues to challenge rightsholders everywhere, including across the EU. While technological advancements have complicated the issue, recent trends suggest a stabilisation in online piracy levels. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) recently released its fourth report since 2019, analysing online piracy across music, TV, films, and more.
Stabilising piracy levels
The report reveals that overall piracy in the EU stabilised in 2023 at an average of 10.2 accesses per internet user per month, a trend consistent since 2021. TV piracy remains the largest category, accounting for 5.1 accesses per internet user per month, dwarfing music piracy levels. However, TV and music piracy saw a slight uptick between 2022 and 2023.
Music piracy shrinking
Music privacy only accounted for an average of 0.6 accesses per internet user per month in 2023, a quarter of the levels in 2017. This may be surprising considering the demand for music streaming has more than doubled since 2019, but this decline may align with the increased adoption of legal streaming platforms. Mobile devices remain the primary means of accessing pirated music, with the most popular methods being:
- Stream-ripping: Downloading the audio from videos.
- Illegal downloading: Saving music without authorisation.
- Unlicensed streaming: Streaming content illegally.
- Torrenting: Sharing music files via peer-to-peer networks.
Factors influencing piracy
The EUIPO report identifies several factors affecting piracy levels, including economic and societal variables:
- A country’s wealth and income inequality: Greater economic equality within a country tends to correlate with lower levels of music piracy.
- Youth unemployment: High youth unemployment tends to increase film piracy, likely caused by a lack of disposable income. However, high youth unemployment surprisingly seems to reduce music and TV piracy. This may be explained because unemployed young people often live with parents who pay for their TV and music subscriptions.
- Attitudes toward piracy and population structure: Countries with more permissive attitudes towards piracy, coupled with younger populations, typically experience higher piracy levels.
- Availability of legal content: Music streaming services typically offer extensive catalogues under single subscriptions, reducing the need for piracy. Whereas, TV and film services do not cover all content, pushing users toward piracy to access content spread across multiple platforms, and without paying for several subscriptions. Alternatively, users may actively choose to only use piracy options for film and TV as no subscription covers all content.
Reassuring signs for artists
Despite challenges, the significant reduction in music piracy is encouraging. The prevalence of legal on-demand streaming has made accessing music legitimately more convenient than ever. While issues around artists’ streaming compensation persist, the decline in piracy shows that artists should be reassured that their music will mainly be heard legitimately.