Piracy is Good For You

Another new study out today, which looked at audience reaction to Radiohead's most recent album, confirms what every independent study on the subject has shown: Illegal downloads are actually good for artists and that, even if that were not the case, there is nothing that can be done about them.

“Rights-holders should be aware that these non-traditional venues are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular and will never go away,” said Eric Garland, co-author of the study, which concluded there was strong brand loyalty to controversial “torrent” and peer-to-peer services.

The study was done by MCPS-PRS Alliance which represents music rights holders and Big Champagne, an online media measurement company. The study found that despite the bands offering up the album on it's website for free or very little there were still 2.3 million illegal downloads in the first 25 days of it's release.

"Record companies should ask themselves: “What are the costs and benefits of control versus the costs and benefits of scale?” said Mr Page.

He also challenged the assumption that no other band could achieve the same benefits, saying Radiohead’s experiment had reduced the marginal cost and risk for those following their lead.

He described the launch of In Rainbows as “stunt marketing at its best”."

While it's true that most independent artists could not achieve the same numbers as Radiohead it is also true that the more people that hear your music the more people will buy it (as well as attending your live shows and buying your merch.) It is also true that the more available the music is the more people will hear it.

More information on the study can be found here.