Bruno Mars, Rihanna Are Most Pirated Artists of 2013
Bruno Mars and Rihanna were illegally downloaded more than five million times each in 2013, making them the two most-pirated artists of the year.
According to Musicmetric, which analyzes BitTorrent data, Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake and Flo Rida rounded out the top five musicians. Kanye West, Eminem, Jay Z, Drake and Pitbull also earned the dubious distinction of high illegal downloads.
Rihanna and More New Immortals
Musicmetric also crunched numbers to determine that Taylor Swift was a social media winner in 2013, adding 29.5 million new followers on Facebook, Twitter and other services. Close behind were Katy Perry, who added 29.2 million fans, and Timberlake, with 28.8 million.
Gregory Mead, a Musicmetric executive, said that while the analysts “don’t condone piracy,” the company’s BitTorrent data does show artists where their fans are and helps them plan ways to engage with them.
“Back in the day, people went into record shops to try records before they bought them,” said Mead, whose company recently noted that Beyoncé’s new album was pirated 240,000 times in its first 10 days of release. “Nowadays, they download or stream a track and then perhaps buy a download or a gig ticket.”