Monitoring service MusicMetric has analysed over the past 3 years a massive increase of illegal downloads. It has found that people have been illegally downloading music by using BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay and other similar sites.
The data collected by the site shows that Ed Sheeran was the most illegally downloaded singer in 2012, with his album clocking over 8 million illegal downloads in towns and cities across the UK.
In 2012, UK Government ordered internet providers to block BitTorrent directory and The Pirate Bay to prevent users from visiting these illegal downloading sites. But, there are alternative ways to get around the blocking measure so people would still be able to access the site, such as apps on smartphones and other websites, so the issue cannot be solved effectively and still exists today.
The report by MusicMetric has had a massive impact on the music industry, as the nature of piracy is on such a huge scale it is hard to track the full extent of the issue.
