Less popular artists profit from filesharing

Written by Ernesto on November 22, 2005 

The rich get poorer and the poor get richer. That’s what filesharing does for the music industry. No wonder the RIAA is desperately trying to shutdown all filesharing activities.

A recent overview of the current literature on the effect of filesharing on record sales shows that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, the remaining 75% of all artists actually profits from filesharing. How this is possible?

Easy, sharing increases the amount of artists you get familiar with. Especially BitTorrent sites are an excellent platform for promoting new, or less popular artists.

First of all, on BitTorrent sites the users decide what’s popular, not the radiostations, record labels and pluggers. Besides this, it’s far more easy to first download an album, listen to it, and then decide if you want to buy it or not. Sure, most of the people will not buy the album, but since you will probably tell tell your friends about this “great new album”, popularity will grow, and eventually the artist will profit from it.

An excellent example is the band Harvey Danger who offers the opportunity to download their album on their website. As soon as they decided to do this, their popularity grew. By offering their album as a download, they gained a lot of fans, collected donations, and probably sold more albums.

Something to think about…

Previously: BitTorrent & Firefox

Next: the MPAA and Bram Cohen are going to make a big announcement

86 Responses

1 Feb 15, 2006 at 22:57 by Eric

i totally agree with this…once i started DLing songs i got exposed to WAY more music i never would’ve bothered to hear…and bands i DO like i still go buy the CD to support them

2 Feb 16, 2006 at 00:18 by Ernesto

I agree a bit. People should still support their favorite bands by buying cd’s

but.

the internet and filesharing offers a great opportunity for starting bands to reach the public. Personally I don’t need some guy in a suit to decide what kind of music I should listen to.

Take a look at http://www.jamendo.com/en/

This is how it should be, we should decide what’s good. Most of the money should go to the artists, not the 10% or less they get now.

3 Feb 17, 2006 at 16:01 by zeussy

yea, i wouldnt listen to 1/3 of the bands i listen to now if i couldnt download a track or two of theirs first. coz lets face it, just buy a random cd these days often leads to u buying absolute shit

4 Feb 22, 2007 at 02:29 by yeluymty

If u don’t want to see this message again please write me your website link at: tuxcop@yahoo.co.uk Your URL will be immediately removed from Data Basea

5 Feb 22, 2007 at 10:19 by rjyradmo

If u don’t want to see this message again please write me your website link at: tuxcop@yahoo.co.uk Your URL will be immediately removed from Data Base

6 Feb 22, 2007 at 18:32 by ofrizwyv

If u don’t want to see this message again please write me your website link at: tuxcop@yahoo.co.uk Your URL will be immediately removed from Data Basee

7 Mar 19, 2007 at 11:55 by Elza

Oh o ho! very nice site!e

8 Mar 27, 2007 at 08:03 by Katie

Hello people! Nice site!

9 Mar 31, 2007 at 08:06 by Katie

I you all love!n

10 Apr 10, 2007 at 04:41 by Joon

Fascinating site and well worth the visit. I will be back2

11 Apr 12, 2007 at 13:09 by Bob

i love this site.e

12 Apr 13, 2007 at 18:09 by Jersey

Many interesting information on your site – keep up good work2

13 Sep 29, 2007 at 17:43 by sveta

Your work is marvelous!!u

14 Sep 30, 2007 at 07:39 by Hillary

Check out my new site:)

15 Sep 30, 2007 at 16:57 by sveta

Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site. I have learned a lot from your site. Thanks!!k

16 Oct 02, 2007 at 01:19 by Hillary

You have built a good website

17 Oct 02, 2007 at 18:11 by Hillary

I\’l be back… :)

18 Oct 02, 2007 at 23:06 by Bill

Nice site… Cool guestbook…+

19 Oct 03, 2007 at 20:48 by Bill

Hi, everybodyi

20 Oct 04, 2007 at 15:16 by Bill

Hello stupid pendosegi.b

21 Oct 05, 2007 at 02:58 by Hillary

This is very interesting site…a

22 Oct 05, 2007 at 11:12 by Hillary

I enjoy your site very much! THANK YOUs

23 Oct 06, 2007 at 00:15 by Britney

Your work is marvelous!!e

24 Oct 06, 2007 at 14:56 by Helga

Very cool design! Useful information. Go on!

25 Oct 07, 2007 at 03:58 by Britney

Sentimental and nostalgic. Great.

26 Oct 07, 2007 at 07:33 by Hillary

keep up the good work!e

27 Oct 07, 2007 at 12:08 by Britney

Very interesting website. Keep up the outstanding work and thank you…t

28 Oct 07, 2007 at 22:56 by Bill

keep up the good work!

29 Oct 09, 2007 at 07:55 by Britney

Da nu Nah

30 Oct 10, 2007 at 04:50 by Britney

Just wanted to say helloe

31 Oct 10, 2007 at 14:13 by Bill

Nice site its very interesting site! your site is fantastic.k

32 Oct 11, 2007 at 12:28 by Helga

hochu vodki!

33 Oct 11, 2007 at 14:58 by Bill

Hi, good morning to all of you… Nice Guestbook ;-) !!!m

34 Oct 12, 2007 at 03:20 by Bill

Found your site in google, and it has a lot of usefull information. Thanx.,

35 Oct 12, 2007 at 03:21 by Bill

Found%2Byour%2Bsite%2Bin%2Bgoogle%252C%2Band%2Bit%2Bhas%2Ba%2Blot%2Bof%2Busefull%2Binformation.%2BThanx.%252C

36 Oct 13, 2007 at 06:12 by Hillary

Found your site in google, and it has a lot of usefull information. Thanx.

37 Oct 13, 2007 at 18:46 by Bill

Very+good+web+site%2C+great+work+and+thank+you+for+your+service.%21

38 Oct 14, 2007 at 17:19 by Bill

I\’m love this great website. Many thanks guy

39 Oct 15, 2007 at 10:26 by Bill

You have built a good websitet

40 Oct 16, 2007 at 08:38 by Hillary

Great Site – really useful information!

41 Oct 16, 2007 at 13:55 by Bill

I enjoyed your page. Keep up the good work! Feel free to visit my page. It\’s cool too.

42 Oct 18, 2007 at 07:17 by Hillary

Wow!!! Good job. Could I take some of yours triks to build my own site?g

43 Oct 18, 2007 at 22:37 by Bill

Check out my new site:)s

44 Oct 19, 2007 at 20:12 by Bill

Nice site… Cool guestbook…n

45 Oct 21, 2007 at 02:35 by Britney

The site\’\’s very professional! Keep up the good work! Oh yes, one extra comment – maybe you could add more pictures too! So, good luck to your team!t

46 Oct 25, 2007 at 15:06 by Bush

The site\’\’s very professional! Keep up the good work! Oh yes, one extra comment – maybe you could add more pictures too! So, good luck to your team!n

47 Oct 26, 2007 at 01:36 by Bush

Just serfed in. Great site, guys!i

48 Oct 26, 2007 at 02:12 by Hillary

This website is very nice and colorful too. Its nice to have something to show others where you attend church and to show all the smiling people filled of the goodness of the Lord. You have a wonderful website here. May God rich bless you always.

49 Oct 26, 2007 at 02:12 by Bush

Check out my new site:)g

50 Oct 27, 2007 at 01:28 by Bush

Just wanted to say hello

51 Oct 27, 2007 at 17:43 by Bill

You have built a good websiteu

52 Oct 28, 2007 at 08:02 by Hillary

Hi our little brothers.

53 Oct 30, 2007 at 03:08 by Bill

I\’m love this great website. Many thanks guyf

54 Oct 30, 2007 at 10:21 by Hillary

Thank for making this valuable information available to the public.

55 Oct 31, 2007 at 04:51 by Hillary

Very cool design! Useful information. Go on!i

56 Oct 31, 2007 at 11:56 by Bill

Sentimental and nostalgic. Great.

57 Nov 01, 2007 at 08:56 by Bill

Very interesting website. Keep up the outstanding work and thank you…2

58 Nov 02, 2007 at 08:20 by Hillary

I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!n

59 Nov 03, 2007 at 02:20 by Bill

s prazdnikov vass

60 Nov 04, 2007 at 08:55 by Hillary

Wow!!! Good job. Could I take some of yours triks to build my own site?x

61 Nov 04, 2007 at 10:41 by Britney

s prazdnikov vas

62 Nov 05, 2007 at 00:05 by Britney

Nice post. I\’ll return.

63 Nov 05, 2007 at 23:50 by Britney

keep up the good work!

64 Nov 06, 2007 at 01:37 by Bill

I\’m love this great website. Many thanks guy/

65 Nov 07, 2007 at 08:00 by Bill

huyak

66 Nov 08, 2007 at 09:25 by Hillary

Nice site… Cool guestbook…

67 Nov 10, 2007 at 11:17 by Hillary

keep up the good work!”

68 Nov 12, 2007 at 02:14 by Bill

Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site. I have learned a lot from your site. Thanks!!k

69 Nov 16, 2007 at 05:41 by Britney

Found your site in google, and it has a lot of usefull information. Thanx.c

70 Nov 16, 2007 at 05:55 by Britney

Nice site… Cool guestbook…c

71 Nov 16, 2007 at 07:25 by Britney

huyak

72 Nov 16, 2007 at 07:25 by Hillary

A fantastic site, and brilliant effort. A great piece of work.p

73 Nov 16, 2007 at 21:31 by Hillary

Wonderful pages! Keep up the grat work.

74 Nov 17, 2007 at 08:48 by Bill

This is very interesting site7

75 Nov 17, 2007 at 11:31 by Bill

Pretty nice site, wants to see much more on it! :)a

76 Nov 17, 2007 at 19:46 by Bill

Check out my new site:)

77 Nov 18, 2007 at 01:22 by Britney

Hi, good morning to all of you… Nice Guestbook ;-) !!!

78 Nov 18, 2007 at 02:16 by Hillary

Fascinating site and well worth the visit. I will be back

79 Nov 18, 2007 at 06:12 by Britney

Hi, everybodyi

80 Nov 18, 2007 at 13:10 by Bush

I consider that beside Your site there is future!

81 Nov 18, 2007 at 14:01 by Britney

Your guestbook is example of middle-class guestbooks. Congratulation! I’ll show your site and guestbook to my friends.a

82 Nov 19, 2007 at 00:11 by Bill

Da+nu+Nahn

83 Nov 20, 2007 at 09:02 by Bill

You have built a good websiteo

84 Nov 20, 2007 at 14:38 by Britney

Wonderful and informative web site.I used information from that site its great.

85 Nov 20, 2007 at 18:02 by Britney

Great site. I will bookmark for my sons to view as well!!!

86 Nov 21, 2007 at 01:40 by Bill

Hi, all. Nice site…I really like your site ! Good job man.t

Responses are closed

All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.