David Guetta thanks piracy for selling concert tickets

[Dieter Holger]

In a recent interview with the BBC, world-renowned French DJ and music producer David Guetta thanked music pirates for being able to sell-out his concert tickets. The DJ reflected on a concert in Brazil, where he claimed without piracy he wouldn't have had enough fans to sell all 20,000 tickets. Apparently, he thinks it isn't record sales alone that attract such large crowds.

Overall, Guetta is pleased people have access to his music, whether that be through piracy or legal means. Guetta went on to equate piracy with progress, which he believes isn't worth fighting -- he even suggested we should "embrace" piracy. Although he said it would be "nice" to receive money from everyone who listens to his music, he thought the idea was ultimately "impossible."

According to the anti-piracy group RIAA's sources, piracy accounts for $12.5 billion in yearly losses for the music industry. However, Guetta isn't alone in seeing the benefits of piracy for musicians.

In 2012, the American Assembly stated music pirates in the U.S., who on average possess larger collections of music, were 30 percent more likely to own more paid music over non-file sharers. Another study reported by TorrentFreak listed music pirates as 10 times more likely to pay for music than the average person.

Watch the clip of Guetta's interview with the BBC below.

Image Credit: Flickr

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61292-david-guetta-thanks-piracy-selling-concert-tickets.html

 

[stewi0001]

Wow they are finally catching on to better ways to making money rather than filing lawsuits.

 

[madboyv1]

I listened to a song that had been uploaded illegally to youtube, listened to a couple more tracks on the album, and then ended up buying a copy of said album since I liked it. I guess that is an example for the pirate's side? If it had never been uploaded to youtube I would have never heard the song since the group is out of Canada and pretty much only sell online (digital and physical copies).

 

[Nobina]

I doubt that piracy helps as much as it hurts the industry, but since you can't get rid of it this will do.

 

[9Nails]

I'd never had heard of several artists if it weren't for news about pirating! (Including this one.) Now I'll likely go take a listen, and if I like it, I'll end up buying a track or possibly an album.

 

[Guest]

Well, in pc games piracy is almost over, imagine this or next november, 5-6 titles using Denuvo protection, only one group can crack it in ~15 days. They won't have enough time to crack all games and will let them uncracked and probably Denuvo will be a lot stronger by then. Media files are prone to piracy no matter what.

 

[Mister_K]

Well, in pc games piracy is almost over, imagine this or next november, 5-6 titles using Denuvo protection, only one group can crack it in ~15 days. They won't have enough time to crack all games and will let them uncracked and probably Denuvo will be a lot stronger by then. Media files are prone to piracy no matter what.

what? All DRMs are usually cracked within the first few hours/days of the release.

Unless you want strictly online play in which can you will need to purchase.

 

[spectrenad]

I discovered a bunch of new artists on grooveshark, before they took it down. ended up buying albums I wouldn't even know about otherwise. but I guess since these bands are underground, it doesn't benefit the big label industry if poeple listen to anything else than the radio. so yeah they took it down anyways. piracy does help artists, it's just that, most of the time, it doesn't help the "right" artists.

 

[Guest]

I am thankful to piracy for opening the world of music to me. Mainstream music on the radio gets old very quickly when they play the same song 15 times a day. Without piracy it is difficult to hear and learn about different artists. I don't know anyone who would start randomly buying albums in hope they might like the music. You need a way to listen to them.

While I rarely buy albums as I pay monthly for unlimited streaming, I am an avid concert goer. Listening to music on youtube illegally uploaded lets me find new music I like (then I often pirate the album to listen through it). If the band tours within a 6 hour drive of me, I always find a way to attend their concert. I often buy their album or merchandise at the concert to support them.

In the 90s I bought all my albums. However, I only listened to probably 30 bands. Now with piracy I have hundreds of bands I listen to, and I am more likely to attend a concert as there are so many more. I definitely spend a lot more on music in a year nowadays than I did twenty years ago. Although that money is now spread out over many bands. I guess that's better, instead of overfeeding a few fat people, you give just enough to feed the entire village.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Piracy may or may not help the music industry... we can't ever know the truth... but by claiming losses of 12+ billion dollars is just laughable...

They find this figure by calculating the amount of music that is illegally downloaded, and assuming that all of it would have been purchased!! Can anyone really claim that if the music wasn't available illegally, the pirate would simply have gone out and bought it ALL?!!?!?

Maybe an album or 2, but as someone who "lives close" to a music pirate (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), I can assure you that the reason "we" steal so much music is because it is FREE... If I had to pay for it, I wouldn't be buying more than an album or 2...

Equate it to a pile of free candy in front of you... it's free, so you pig out and eat 10-20.... if you had to pay $1 per piece, you might still take 1 or 2 - but certainly not 10-20 (ok, maybe some of you would, but you should be dieting!!!)...

To then claim that the "free candy" cost the manufacturer $20 is being facetious... it really cost them only $1 or $2....

 

[Nick D]

Well piracy does help when people have no intention of listening to 20 albums because they are free. If the music was good, the pirate becomes a fan and more likely to spend money on that band. It's illegal but mass exposure that is not possible in any other way (radio/YouTube are controlled streams which make them different)

 

[andrewyoung]

So why does he have a shitty *** set of beats headphones on......that's all I want to know.....

 

[Guest]

Well all radios should be closed due to the piracy too
if you listen songs equivalent to 1 album ~1 hour, you should pay on average 10$, but I highly doubt advertising you listen during that time will earn authors of those songs 10$, yes someone else might buy advertised product but not you, so basically you have listened album for free, yes you didnt get a copy of album, but you did consumed "goods" a free

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well all radios should be closed due to the piracy too
if you listen songs equivalent to 1 album ~1 hour, you should pay on average 10$, but I highly doubt advertising you listen during that time will earn authors of those songs 10$, yes someone else might buy advertised product but not you, so basically you have listened album for free, yes you didnt get a copy of album, but you did consumed "goods" a free

While I'm pretty sure you were being sarcastic, let's not forget that radio is LEGAL - so it can't be compared to piracy... If I were to illegally download an album and then play it over the radio - THAT IS PIRACY

The thing is, individual artists want as much publicity for their songs as possible - piracy doesn't really hurt them, as this just makes their songs more popular - giving them more record / concert deals...

Piracy hurts the DISTRIBUTORS, not the artists... anti-piracy commercials only point to the artists as the people who suffer because we can identify with the "starving artist"... much harder to identify with the billion-dollar corporation that makes its money distributing their artists' material...

Piracy distributes it for free, making them more and more redundant... hence the battle...

 

[cliffordcooley]

Piracy hurts the DISTRIBUTORS, not the artists..

Which is why we no longer need the distributors. The Internet can distribute far better than any distributor. What the Internet can't do is produce the music which the distributors have a hand in helping produce. The artist being the distributors pawns is the battle piracy must take down. As soon as the artist become their own distributors, things will never be the same.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I totally agree - and I suspect the distributors do too... which is why they are fighting so hard to stamp piracy out - it sucks to find out that you aren't really needed... especially when you're raking in billions - billions that could easily disappear!

 

[Dookii]

Wow they are finally catching on to better ways to making money rather than filing lawsuits.

You are missing a very vital detail here.

This is a producer/artist talking. His record company will still sue you out of your pants for it nonetheless.
They most likely send some very unfriendly "communications" david gueata's way over this by now.