It is now officially 2014! With the start of a new year, and the end of an old, a lot of different media outlets are publishing top ten lists to reflect upon the year that has gone by. Top ten lists are (in my opinion) lazy journalism, but they do provide an easy to digest snapshot of the year that has gone by. One particular top ten list that has caught my eye Musicmetric’s list of the top ten pirated artists of 2013.
Before I dwell too deep into the list, it should be noted that the list only contains data from downloads via BitTorrent. While BitTorrent is arguably the most popular method of piracy there are other increasingly popular methods of piracy which could have been considered for an even more accurate picture. Regardless, the results from the data are not too surprising.
Many of artists on the list were those who released a new album in 2013; this includes Katy Perry who was at the bottom of the list with 2.3 million downloads. Other artists, such as Bruno Mars who topped the list with nearly 5.8 million downloads, released albums late in 2012. Almost all the artists on the list were on fairly high profile and long tours throughout most of 2013 which undoubtedly contributed to the number of downloads. All in all it seems as though artists in the public eye in one way or another in 2013 were (as expected) those who were pirated the most. Arguably, one way of looking at this list is as a ranking of the most popular artists of 2013. l almost have to wonder whether these artists, or alternatively their marketing/brand managers, should receive some recognition for making the list.
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10541876/Bruno-Mars-and-Rihanna-most-pirated-artists-in-2013.html
