Manchester named UK piracy capital
Manchester has been named as home to the UK’s highest concentration of illegal downloaders, according to a study conducted by the monitoring service Musicmetric.
The results were reported exclusively by the BBC and show that there were more illegal downloads per person in the city than any other in the country.
It is believed to be the biggest survey of its kind ever conducted and shows that the UK is the second largest contributor to piracy by net volume with more than 40m albums and singles illegally shared in the first half of 2012 alone.
Unsurprisingly the US topped the list with 96m such illicit downloads over the same period.
Italy (33,158,943), Canada (23,959,924) and Brazil (19,724,522) rounded out the top five.
Amongst the artists most affected by piracy were Ed Sheeran, the most pirated UK act of the period, followed by hip-hop pair Rizzle Kicks and Rhianna.
Speaking to the BBC Geoff Taylor , chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, said: "According to their data, there are more illegal downloads in the UK still than there are legal purchases.
"[It] compares to about 240 million tracks that were sold legally. A lot of people are getting very rich from stealing other people's things.
"That's wrong, and we think that musicians deserve to be paid for what they do, just like everyone else."