Piracy Is NOT Killing The Entertainment Industry

It's a good assumption that everyone who is somewhat computer savvy has torrented something in their life. There has always been rumors that piracy has been killing the entertainment industry. Though a logical point, studies show that in fact it does not affect the industry at all.

I'll focus mainly on the music industry. Piracy has in fact, helped the industry more than it has hurt it. Hard to believe right? How can illegally downloading something for free help an industry that thrives off of merchandise sales? It's simple really.

The lack in CD sales is compensated by the rise of digital sales, subscription services, streaming and most importantly, live performances.  Now let's analyze this logically. When someone buys a CD, they're buying because they know as a fact they enjoy that artist. No one buys a CD not knowing what's going to be on it. With this said, when the music they're downloading is free, at least the consumer can listen to new bands without having to purchase an album.

For example, Band A is an up-and-coming band and just released their first CD. It's available for $15 in stores. If no one knows this band, no one is going to waste $15 on a CD they know nothing about. So maybe someone writes the band name down, or they happen to stumble upon it online. That person, can then look up a free download of the album and give it a listen. If that person is a good pirate, he/she would then go buy the album. But let's be honest, that doesn't happen with all pirates.

But since that person downloaded the album for free, they now know about the band and knows the band is good. Now when this band goes on tour, or is playing a local show, that person is more likely to go to that concert. And that's where all the money is made.

So in summary, CD sales are down, but concert ticket sales are up as shown here.

Now in other entertainment industries, reports show that digital gaming is thriving and the U.S. film industry is breaking records. People may download the movie for free, but nothing can compare to the experience one gets when going to the movie theaters to see the next blockbuster film.

I remember reading an AMA on Reddit featuring the band Between The Buried And Me. Their newest album, The Parallax II: Future Sequences, was leaked on torrenting sites before the actual release of the album. Someone asked BTBAM what they think about piracy. Singer Tommy Giles Rogers replied,

the album leaked???? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! in all honesty, i'm a little disappointed that the album leaked, but not for any financial reasons. it's more of a pride thing i think. when you put so much of your heart, soul, and time into something, you really want the impact of it's release to be reflective of the impact it had on you when you created it. so the fact that it leaked sort of trivializes that effort a little bit, and ultimately cheapens the impact of the "release date". but hey, i'm a realist and i understand the time we live in. records leak. it happens. it makes me happy that people want to hear the record and ultimately, if they come to shows and show their love, i'm content.

 I'm not trying to say that piracy is a good thing or a bad thing in society, the fact of the matter is it exists and people are always going to download as along as the material is out there. But for the sake of argument, it doesn't actually hurt the entertainment industry at all.