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New research reveals stream-ripping is the “most aggressive” and “fastest-growing” form of music piracy

New research conducted by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and PRS For Music has revealed that trusty old stream-ripping is now the “most aggressive” and “fastest-growing” form of music piracy.

stream ripping

New research reveals stream-ripping is the “most aggressive” and “fastest-growing” form of music piracy and “overshadows all other methods of illegal music piracy.”

According to the study, between 2014 and 2016, overall usage of stream-ripping sites (such as YouTube to MP3/4 converters) increased 141.3%, overwhelmingly overshadowing all other illegal music services.

In 2016, PRS for Music and the IPO jointly commissioned two separate studies by INCOPRO and Kantar Media to better understand stream-ripping and its impact on the UK market and online consumer behaviour.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube was the most popular source of rip-able content, used by 75 of the 80 stream-ripping services surveyed. SoundCloud, Spotify and Deezer were amongst other popular licensed platforms most targeted.

In a survey of over 9000 people, 15% of adults in the UK – mostly male and between the age of 16-34 – claimed to have used a stream-ripping service.

Reasons for ripping were cited as: music was already owned by the user in another format (31%); wanting to listen to music offline (26%), or on the move (25%); unaffordability (21%) and feeling that official music content is overpriced (20%).

You can check out the full report here, or a quick rundown here.

[via PRS For Music]