Music piracy driven by 17m stream-rippers in 2018: report

There were 17 million stream-rippers in the US during 2018, up two million from 15 million in 2017, according to a new study by market research and industry analysis firm MusicWatch.

In a statement issued yesterday, May 30, MusicWatch said its Annual Music Study found that the top 30% of stream-rippers copied an average of 112 files last year (the equivalent of more than 10 full music albums).

Stream-ripping is a form of music piracy where users download a file from a streaming site like YouTube.

One of the biggest factors for those who use stream-ripping was that they wanted to own the music, but didn’t like the music enough to pay for it (37% said this). Additionally, 46% of stream-rippers said they did so because they wanted to listen to the songs when they were offline.

The report also uncovered statistics about the profiles of those who stream-ripped music in the last year. It said that 56% of stream-rippers were male, and 68% were aged between 13-34 years old.

Additionally, 34% of stream-rippers are full or part time students while 43% are from white collar professions.

The report said that most stream-rippers were well educated and from higher income backgrounds, with nearly half (48%) coming from higher income backgrounds.

MusicWatch said that “discouraging stream-ripping isn’t just good for music; it’s good for the entire entertainment ecosystem”.

“If they’ll pirate music they’ll likely also take movies, TV shows and other forms of IP,” it added.

This story was first published on TBO.

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