Survey: 83% of fans who access piracy sites tried to find it legally first

Some music fans’ attitudes toward piracy doesn't seem to have changed despite the expanding choices of legal content.

A recent study by London-based antipiracy tracking and consulting firm MUSO found that 63% of consumers who pirated music, film and TV think it’s wrong… but a very high 83% justify their actions by arguing that they tried to find it legally first.

86% of the study’s 1,000 UK respondents already subscribe to streaming services and channels for music, TV and film as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify or Apple Music.

But 91% had also used a piracy site. They cited cost (35.2%), and titles not available on their subscription services (34.9%) or in the UK (34.7%).

MUSO previously reported that global entertainment piracy had risen 1.6% in 2017 with 300 billion visits to internet piracy sites.

Film piracy dropped but copyright infringing access to music and television content increased.

Given the figures, MUSO COO Paul Briley issued a warning in a statement.

“The entertainment industry tends to envisage piracy audiences as a criminal element, and writes them off as money lost – but they are wrong to do so,” he said.

“The reality is that the majority of people who have gone through the effort of finding and accessing such unlicensed content are, first and foremost, fans – fans who are more often than not trying to get content legally if they can.

“Rather than dismissing these audiences, content creators need to acknowledge the problem and find new ways to engage this high-intent audience, who for one reason or another are unable to easily access the content they want legitimately.”

“The reality is that the majority of people who have gone through the effort of finding and accessing such unlicensed content are, first and foremost, fans – fans who are more often than not trying to get content legally if they can.”

Last year, MUSO noted that Americans were making the most visits to piracy sites, at 27.9%.

The rest of the Top 10 were Russia (20.6%), India (17%), Brazil (12.7%), Turkey (11.1%), Japan (10.6%), France (10,5%), Indonesia (10,4%), Germany (10.2% and the UK (9%).