[This news surprised me about FM]
The Beatles are the most popular 'pirated' pop stars
Fleetwood Mac is second By Dave Neal Fri Nov 08 2013, 15:42 The Inquirer
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ated-pop-stars
MOP TOP COMBO The Beatles are the most commonly found music group on filesharing 'pirate' websites, according to Muso, an organisation that keeps an eye on that sort of thing.
Muso reported that it has had a good look at online cyberlockers and filesharing web portals and found a great many examples of the Fab Four.
The report from the "complete anti-piracy solutions provider" was covered by Music Week. It said that a study of filelocker and Bittorrent websites found a large number of files related to The Beatles.
187,687 online Beatles files were found in the study. Second in the ranking was
Fleetwood Mac, with 72,984 uploaded files, while Bob Marley was represented by 60,024 files, and Led Zeppelin by 59,011 files.
The list was culled from websites that respect takedown notices, so not all will be included.
The Beatles were late to the download party and only, we say only, appeared on iTunes in 2010. It seems like just yesterday.
All parties were glad when the Fab Four fell into the Apple fold, and Steve Jobs, who might have named Apple after the Beatles' Apple record label, was glowing at the time.
"We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes," said Jobs, who was then Apple's CEO. "It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we've had since we launched iTunes ten years ago," Jobs added.
"I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes," added drummer Ringo Starr at the time. "At last, if you want it - you can get it now - The Beatles from Liverpool to now! Peace and Love, Ringo."
Muso reckons that each file probably will have been downloaded 1,000 times. It estimates that this puts the Beatles' traffic at 190 million downloads a year. µ