Ed Sheeran and Rihanna top illegal download charts in SE London and north Kent (From News Shopper)

Ed Sheeran and Rihanna top illegal download charts in SE London and north Kent as music piracy data revealed

10:17am Monday 17th September 2012 in News

RIHANNA and Ed Sheeran are among the most illegally downloaded artists in the News Shopper area covering south-east London and north Kent, according to new music piracy data.

Monitoring service Musicmetric has released the results of research for the first half of 2012 showing where the piracy hot-spots of the UK are and which musicians’ work is most frequently shared.

The study found singer-songwriter Sheeran's 2011 album + was illegally downloaded 55,512 times every month, and was the most unlawfully shared download in more than 460 towns and cities, including Bromley (64 shares a month) and Gravesend (53 shares a month).

Barbadian singer Rihanna’s latest release Talk That Talk was the next most pirated download, and topped the list in Dartford (56 shares a month) and Bexley (14 shares a month).

No information is available for Lewisham and Greenwich, although American rapper Big Sean appears popular with music pirates elsewhere in south-east London.

The figures suggest that across the country more music tracks are illegally downloaded than are bought legally. Oddly, London as a whole only ranked 20th on the list of BitTorrent download hotspots.

Music industry body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) complains that piracy is a big problem and artists deserve to be paid for their work.

Why do you think so many people think it’s acceptable to get music illegally and for free? Should there be tougher penalties for those caught downloading music from pirate sites? Do you think piracy actually damages the music industry? Add your comments below.