Music piracy statistics show a mixed picture: illegal music access was reported by 25% of UK respondents in 2022, while EU pirated-music consumption was 75% lower in 2023 than in 2017. The figures below separate survey prevalence from access intensity, and distinguish the UK survey periods from the EU time series.
Contents
- UK music piracy prevalence
- How people accessed music in the UK
- Why listeners accessed music online
- Legal and illegal music downloading
- Legal and illegal music streaming
- EU piracy intensity over time
- Methods, devices, and country differences
UK music piracy prevalence
The UK prevalence figures measure whether respondents had used an illegal source for music during the previous three months. They are survey results for each stated period, not estimates of the share of all music listening or the number of tracks accessed.
In 2019, 20% of UK respondents said they had used an illegal music source in the previous three months. The figure was 18% in 2020, then 15% in 2021. In 2022, the reported share rose to 25%.
| UK survey period | Used an illegal music source in the previous three months |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 20% |
| 2020 | 18% |
| 2021 | 15% |
| 2022 | 25% |
Source: Online copyright infringement tracker survey (10th Wave) executive summary, Online copyright infringement tracker survey (11th Wave) executive summary, and Executive summary Online copyright infringement tracker survey (12th Wave).
The change across these years should be read as a sequence of reported survey measurements. It does not, by itself, establish why the 2022 result was higher than the 2021 result. The supplied survey facts also do not provide a single UK population estimate or a track-level total for illegal consumption.
How people accessed music in the UK
The UK surveys measured several forms of music engagement. In 2020, 37% of respondents streamed music during the previous three months, 23% downloaded music, and 11% bought physical music. In 2021, the corresponding figures were 42% for streaming, 26% for downloading, and 12% for physical purchases.
The 2021 survey also reported that 51% engaged with music through downloading, streaming, sharing, or physical purchase during the previous three months. This combined measure is broader than any one activity, so it should not be added to the separate streaming, downloading, or physical-purchase percentages.
| Activity measured in the previous three months | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Streamed music | 37% | 42% |
| Downloaded music | 23% | 26% |
| Bought physical music | 11% | 12% |
| Downloading, streaming, sharing, or physical purchase combined | — | 51% |
Source: Online copyright infringement tracker survey (10th Wave) executive summary and Online copyright infringement tracker survey (11th Wave) executive summary.
Among the measures supplied here, streaming was the most common individual activity in both 2020 and 2021. The figures describe respondent participation within the stated three-month window; they do not indicate how often each person streamed or downloaded music.
Why listeners accessed music online
The 2022 UK survey asked music consumers to identify top-three reasons for accessing music online. The leading reason in the supplied results was immediacy: 53% selected being able to listen instantly whenever they wanted. A wide range of music was selected by 47%, while 39% selected that online music was free or cheap.
These are overlapping top-three selections rather than mutually exclusive categories. A respondent could choose more than one reason, so the percentages are not intended to total 100%.
| Reason selected among the top three | UK music consumers, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Listen instantly whenever wanted | 53% |
| Wide range of music | 47% |
| Online music was free or cheap | 39% |
Source: Executive summary Online copyright infringement tracker survey (12th Wave).
The earlier UK figures give a track-level view for downloads. In 2019, UK respondents downloaded an average of 75 tracks legally and 10 tracks illegally during the previous three months. In 2020, the averages were 80 legal tracks and 21 illegal tracks for the same three-month measurement window.
Those averages are reported separately from the percentage who used an illegal source. They should not be interpreted as a national total, and the supplied results do not establish that every downloader had the same mix of legal and illegal tracks.
Legal and illegal music downloading
The UK downloading results divide music downloaders into three source-use groups: only legal sources, a mix of legal and illegal sources, and only illegal sources. The distribution changed across the four supplied survey periods.
| Source mix among UK music downloaders | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only legal sources | 70% | 66% | 67% | 55% |
| Mix of legal and illegal sources | 17% | 19% | 18% | 24% |
| Only illegal sources | 13% | 15% | 15% | 21% |
Source: Executive summary Online copyright infringement tracker survey (12th Wave).
Across the supplied years, only legal downloading was the largest category among UK music downloaders. It was 70% in 2019, 66% in 2020, 67% in 2021, and 55% in 2022. Mixed-source downloading was 17%, 19%, 18%, and 24% across those same periods. Only illegal downloading was 13%, 15%, 15%, and 21%.
The categories are conditional on being a music downloader. They therefore describe the source mix within that group, rather than the percentage of all UK respondents using each source category. The 2022 table also should not be treated as a forecast of later behavior.
Legal and illegal music streaming
Streaming showed a different source mix from downloading in the UK results. Among UK music streamers, 98% used only legal sources in each of 2019, 2020, and 2021. The figure was 97% in 2022.
| Source mix among UK music streamers | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only legal sources | 98% | 98% | 98% | 97% |
| Mix of legal and illegal sources | 2% | 1% | 2% | 2% |
| Only illegal sources | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Source: Executive summary Online copyright infringement tracker survey (12th Wave).
The supplied streaming data therefore records no respondents in the only-illegal category in any of the four periods. The mixed-source category remained between 1% and 2%, while only-legal streaming remained between 97% and 98%.
These percentages are again conditional on the respondent being a music streamer. They should be kept separate from the broader UK illegal-source prevalence figures, which cover respondents who used an illegal source for music and are not limited to streaming.
EU piracy intensity over time
The EU figures use a different measure: pirated-music accesses per internet user per month. The average EU internet user accessed pirated music about 2.5 times per month at the start of the 2017–2022 time series. By 2022, the figure was about 0.5 pirated-music accesses per internet user per month.
The report states that EU music piracy fell by 81% between 2017 and 2020 in the EU Member States and the UK. It also reports that pirated music consumption in the EU was 75% lower in 2023 than in 2017. The 2023 level closed at 0.6 pirated-music accesses per internet user per month.
The EU time series is not directly interchangeable with the UK survey percentages. A monthly access rate counts an intensity of access, while a three-month survey prevalence figure records whether respondents reported using an illegal source during a specified period. The EU decline figures are historical measurements in the report, not forecasts.
Methods, devices, and country differences
In the EU in 2023, ripping accounted for nearly half of pirated-music accesses. Downloading represented about 26%, and streaming represented 21%. These categories describe the method used for pirated-music accesses, not the share of people who used each method.
Mobile devices generated twice as many EU pirated-music accesses as desktop devices in 2023. This device comparison is an access-volume relationship; it does not state that twice as many people used mobile devices, nor does it give a percentage of all devices.
Country-level method shares varied substantially in the 2023 EU results. Downloading was the leading pirated-music access method in Ireland, where it represented 42% of music-piracy accesses. It was also the leading method in Germany, representing 36% of accesses. By comparison, downloading represented about 12% of music-piracy accesses in Hungary and about 12% in Malta.
Streaming also differed by country. Pirated-music streaming accounted for 47% of music-piracy accesses in Latvia, compared with 6% in Croatia.
The country figures are method shares within each country’s pirated-music accesses. They should not be read as national piracy prevalence rates. Taken together, the EU results show why method and device context matters: overall access intensity can decline while the remaining accesses are distributed differently across ripping, downloading, streaming, mobile use, and individual countries.