Rihanna Is The Most Illegally Downloaded Musician

A new study on illegal downloads has revealed two major issues concerning the United States; America has millions of pirates and those pirates really like Rihanna.

Rihanna was named the most illegally downloaded musician in a survey conducted by Musicmetric. According to the survey, Rihanna’s latest album Talk Talk Talk was downloaded illegally 1,228,313 times between January and July 2012. The majority of those downloads came from the United States.

According to the Digital Journal, the United States made 96 million illegal downloads during the first six months of 2012. The UK came in second with 40 million illegal downloads.

Italy, Canada, and Brazil complete the top five.

The study shows the downloading habits of different countries but also the different musical tastes from around the world. Rihanna was the most illegally downloaded artist globally as well as in the United States. In the UK, Ed Sheeran was the artist downloaded most, followed by Rizzle Kicks and then Rihanna.

Andy Heath, director of record company Beggars Group told the Telgraph:

“Clearly the biggest problem with illegally downloaded music is that there is a generation who feel it is natural that music and all creative content is free”.

Kanye West, Drake, and Billy Van were also frequently downloaded illegally.

What do you think about piracy? Are illegal downloads destroying the music business?

Recording legend Neil Young said earlier this year that piracy is a new form of radio. Young said:

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone (and) piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around. That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”