Bruno Mars and Rihanna are this year’s most popular artist among music pirates.
When it comes to illegal downloads, the singers easily ruled the roost in 2013. An analysis released by Musicmetric revealed that both artists had their most popular tracks downloaded approximately 5.4 million times. That’s easily $5 million in lost revenue this year alone.
The Independent reports that neither Bruno Mars nor Rihanna released any new albums this year. However, this didn’t stop for pirates from downloading their tunes by the millions.
Another popular recording artist who lost a lot of money this year was Beyonce. Thanks to fans who decided to snatch up her visual album on torrent sites and digital storage lockers, the singer reportedly missed out on around $3.8 million in sales. The new collection of tunes was illegally downloaded around 240,000 times. That number is like to keep growing.
Joining Bruno Mars, Rihanna, and Beyonce on this year’s list are Justin Timberlake and Daft Punk. Both artists watched helplessly as fans downloaded roughly four million songs in 2013. Timberlake’s album 20/20 Experience was snatched around 336,000 times during its first few days of release.
“You can see where people live and if you know where your fans are, you can plan a tour and engage with them. Back in the day, people went into record shops to try records before they bought them — nowadays, they download or stream a track and then perhaps buy a download or a gig ticket,” Semetric’s Gregory Mead explained.
Katy Perry, Kanye West, Flo Rida, Eminem, Jay Z, and Nicki Minaj were also popular choices with pirates this year. Although his tune made plenty of ways during 2013, Robin Thicke is surprisingly absent from the list. Other noteworthy absences this year include Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus.
Check out a chart featuring the most pirated artists below.
Music wasn’t the only thing pirates were after this year. The Inquisitr previously reported that HBO’s Game of Thrones and AMC’s Breaking Bad were both extremely popular on torrent sites throughout 2013. HBO’s fantasy series held the same position last year.
Unfortunately for Bruno Mars, the popularity of his music on torrent sites is likely to grow after his performance during the Super Bowl Halftime show this February. If people like what they hear, then there’s a strong possibility they’ll download what they want for free.
Are you surprised that Bruno Mars and Rihanna are the most pirated artists of 2013?
[Image via Wikimedia Commons ]