Even though we live in a streaming world, music piracy is still a significant issue. This, according to the Music Consumer Insight Report 2018, published by IFPI.
New findings reveal 38 percent of the world still “obtain music through infringing methods.” Stream ripping is the most common way of pirating music and approximately 32 percent admit to using this method. Peer-to-peer (P2P) sites or cyberlockers attribute to 23 percent.
When most think music streaming, they automatically think Spotify or Apple Music. However, YouTube is the prime source for streaming. The report reveals, “nearly half [47 percent] of all time spent listening to on-demand music is on YouTube.” 
Furthermore, the main reason music enthusiasts don’t pay for a streaming subscription is because “anything they want to listen to is on YouTube.”
IFPI chief Frances Moore elaborates on what this means for the industry:
“This report also shows the challenges the music community continues to face — both in the form of the evolving threat of digital copyright infringement as well as in the failure to achieve fair compensation from some user-upload services. Policymakers around the globe have been scrutinizing these issues and increasingly acting to address them.”
Sources: Music Business Worldwide, Gadgets 360
