Music piracy drops by a third in 2013, new Ofcom report shows

The illegal downloading of music is said to have fallen by as much as a third this year, a new report from Ofcom says.

As The Guardian note, 301 million songs were downloaded during March 2012, while only 199 million tracks were illegally shared over the same period this year. This is said to be due to the increasing prevalence of music-streaming platforms, as well as the emergence of high-selling British artists such as Adele and One Direction.

However, it’s not all positives. The report also shows that one in six internet users in the UK admit to have pirated music illegally during the past twelve months. Meanwhile, it also appears than serial downloading is also a problem, with the top 2% of pirates responsible for nearly three-quarters of all file-sharing of music.

Read the full report here.

[via FACT]