More Radiohead fans downloaded the band's most recent record album illegally than through the official web site, despite the band making it usable for unloosen.
Figures collected by the Performing Rights Society � the grouping of songwriters, composers and music publishers which collects British royalties � render that, on the day the band's seventh album, In Rainbows, was released, more than 400,000 "pirate" copies were downloaded illegally through file-sharing networks. In less than four weeks, this number had risen to more than 2.3 million, a figure which the account says "far exceeds" the total estimated number of downloads from the band's website.
The study, produced by the chief economist of the gild in association with an internet monitoring company, concludes that many people world Health Organization download music illegally feel a strong sense of brand loyalty towards plagiarism websites, and will persist in to use of goods and services them even if they are offered an monovular, gratis and lawful alternative.
"Online piracy thrives not entirely because of the widespread availability of free, top-tier entertainment, but because the venues themselves are now well known, well liked and habitually used," says the report.
"Even when the price approaches zero, all other things being equal, people ar more probable to play habitually than to crack their habit. In a digital bowl, consumers go to venues where they feel comfortable."
Radiohead have never disclosed how much money they made from the online gross sales of In Rainbows, or how many people downloaded it.
The record was released last October in a storm of publicity after the band proclaimed that fans would be able to name their own price before downloading a transcript. Last month, the record album was among the nominations for this year's Mercury Music Prize.
Around 6.5 million UK broadband cyberspace users download files illicitly every year, with a staggering 95 per cent of music downloads presently being carried out unlawfully. The climb up of "peer-to-peer" networks such as BitTorrent and Gnutella, which allow people to download files from other users' computers without charge, has been blamed by the medicine industry for the continuing fall in CD sales.
"I suppose there is a degree of brand loyalty to these networks. People obviously get familiar with using certain services and certain websites, and that's part of the job," said Matt Phillips, a spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry, which represents record companies.
"But it's not true to suppose that the internet is uncontrollable. The difficulty is that, until now, nothing has been done almost the problem. We pauperization to better communicate why it's significant to support the artists."
The report comes a week after The Independent revealed the Government has plans to enter new measures for tackling illegal file sharing over the internet, charging broadband users an annual license fee of about �30 for unlimited access to legal file-sharing networks.
The money raised by the scheme would be returned to the artists, with those owning the most popular songs receiving the largest amount of cash.
How file-sharing works
File-sharing networks admit internet users to "share" parts of their information processing system with other people, allowing them to view and download each others' music. The first-class honours degree popular file-sharing network, Napster, was launched in 1999 by a student in Boston. It became a popular place to line up free music and attracted more than 25 one thousand thousand users. Record companies filed lawsuits, and it was forced to close in 2001. Many other file-sharing networks, including BitTorrent and Gnutella, function today. These versions receive no central hub, making them virtually impossible to shut down.
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