No it’s not April Fools, but a study commission from the European Commission (if you live outside of the UK, then for that read gaga land) claims that music piracy doesn’t damage the music industry but actually helps it.

“It seems that the majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them,” claim the researchers in their report, Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data

Obviously the music industry have reacted with some skepticism.

“IFPI believes the JRC study is flawed and misleading. The findings seem disconnected from commercial reality, are based on a limited view of the market and are contradicted by a large  volume of alternative third party research that confirms the negative impact of piracy on the legitimate music business.” Read their full response here

Discuss…