Australians worst offenders for illegal music downloads

The United States and the UK are top of the pile when it comes to the sheer numbers of illegal downloads, poaching 96 million and 43 million respectively to Aussies’ 19 million, which lands them in sixth place. 



Adjust these figures to consider the downloads per population, and Australia runs out on top, though, with an average of 0.84 downloads per capita. The USA, by comparison can only muster a paltry 0.31. 



The survey was conducted by Musicmetric which discovered that with 19 million downloads carried out last year for a population numbering 23 million, Australia is by far and away the biggest illegal downloading nation out there. 



The Hillltop Hoods was the most downloaded artist Down Under last year, with the Adelaide hip hop group’s manager Dylan Liddy commenting to the Sydney Morning Herald: “It is what it is. It’s great that the boys are popular.”



Photo: Getty.