Researchers of the European Commission report (PDF) that the rise in popularity of streaming service Spotify has a positive effect on illegal downloading. The streaming service causes users to download less music through torrents.
The European Commission's in-house science service 'Joint Research Centre' compared the streaming data of more than 8,000 artists on Spotify with illegal download numbers of the same artists. For each 47 started streams, there is 1 less illegal download, according to the researchers.
Although piracy declines, it doesn't mean the music industry makes more profit.
The researchers found that Spotify streams also displaces the sales of music, like individual tracks and digital albums on iTunes. Artists receive about $0.82 ( €0.75) from Apple for each sold number, while the average payment received per stream is no more than $0.007 ( €0.01) .
Also, every 137 streams on Spotify means 1 song less sold on iTunes, according to the researchers.
