London tops Britain's illegal downloading chart

Today a new study has revealed that the capital of the United Kingom has topped the chart for most illegal downloads from torrent sites such as Pirate Bay (probably because it's the biggest, just saying). Manchester was the second UK city where illegal downloading was most popular, although the activity was three times more prevalent in London. In the capital Adele, Bruno Mars and Jessie J, were favourites amongst those illegally downloading music, with Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse, Olly Murs, Cee Lo Green and Take That being the most popular in Manchester. Liverpool was the third biggest UK city for filesharing, followed by Birmingham and Glasgow. The top five most pirated artists across the whole of the UK were Adele, Jessie J, Rihanna, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.

SOURCE

File Sharing

I feel it’s time for me to write about an issue that seems to be all over the News again and something that affects me and millions of other people on a Daily basis. File Sharing, Illegal Downloading, Stealing or whatever else you want to call it, is a problem that has been around for 10 or so years now. We all know what it is, how it works and that it’s wrong; however it’s a force that in the past few years has now become unstoppable.

From a personal perspective I cannot see the problem with ME ‘illegally’ downloading certain files. Out of all the people I have ever met in my life, I am still yet to come across someone that loves Music more than me, which is why I think I can make a valid point on this issue. From the start of 2010 I have acquired 784 songs and we are not even out of March yet - crazy right? Well………not really.

As a Student I have a lot of spare time on my hands and a very unhealthy bank balance, so I need to carefully choose what Music I buy and support. Throughout the past 3 months I have bought a lot of Music: Emancipator - Safe In The Steep Cliffs, Example - Won’t Go Quietly, Ty - Emotions, Gorillaz - Plastic Beach, Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea, Strong Arm Steady - In Search Of Stoney Jackson, Wiley - Never Be Your Woman and M-Trey & Drew Beat - Immaculate Dopeness (Unsigned Hip-Hop duo from Chicago) & More. My point is; I illegally downloaded each of those Singles/Albums before I bought them, just so I knew that my money was going to a project I thoroughly enjoyed. After spending this £40-£50 within 3 months, there is a lot of other Music out there, which I can’t afford to buy; but does that really mean I don’t have the right to listen to it? I don’t think so. I have listened to their work and made an educated choice on where the money I have earned should go.

Today I downloaded Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip’s new album ‘Logic of Choice’, which is an album I have been anticipating greatly since hearing Angles in 2008. My Bank Balance currently stands at -£1,397.39, which means I have £1.03 available and am unable to buy anything; so I shall be purchasing the album on Friday when I get paid. I am also going to see them at Cockpit in Leeds on Thursday to support them as I feel they are a revolutionary pair that have created a whole new genre of Music. Now can anyone say there is anything wrong with that? I doubt it.

I can understand that there are people illegally downloading their whole libraries and not putting ANY money back into the Music Industry, but that’s not everyone is it. A lot of people download Music to increase their knowledge and widen their perspective when it comes to certain genre’s and I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I would never usually buy an Indie/Rock album, and neither would I expect an Indie fan to buy a Hip-Hop album out of the blue, so if it wasn’t for illegal downloading then I would have never listened to the Temper Trap album in 2009, which I bought and it ended up becoming one of my favourite albums of the year (same with Miike Snow).

It’s a never ending argument, but it is something that is never going to be stopped unfortunately.

SUPPORT GOOD MUSIC!

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