According to analysis company Muso, a “leading authority in digital piracy,” and a new report via Digital Music News, media piracy is experiencing a significant boom during COVID-19 lockdowns.
The data showed that Americans are the biggest media pirates in the world, visiting piracy sits more than a billion times just in March alone. Russia was next with around 727 million visits and India came in at 581 million.
Muso’s report didn’t specify how many of the visits pertained to music piracy specifically.
However, total piracy visits pertaining to movies/film in the U.S. jumped by around 30% in the last week of March when lockdown was announced compared to the last week of February.
Software piracy also experienced a bump of nearly 25%. The increase in movie watching and software use can both be attributed to more free time at home and the opportunity to learn new skills, such as Photoshop or Premiere.
Muso CEO Andy Chatterley said: “Piracy or unlicensed consumption trends are closely linked to paid-for or licensed content. So, just as Netflix has seen large subscriber gains, we have seen a significant spike in visits to film piracy sites.”
While new music immediately appears on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, new movies often take weeks or months to reach streaming platforms, likely contributing to the higher spike in piracy compared to music.
