The (somewhat unlikely) fact that people who pirate movies are also more likely to spend money on movies has been well-known for a few years now. But thanks to a survey conducted by BitTorrent, we can now put a number on just how generous the pirates are.
In September, BitTorrent managed to get 2500 of its users away from their bootleg Taylor Swift parties long enough to complete a survey about their content-buying habits. The results are a little awkward for the vehemently anti-pirate movie industry: BitTorrent users are 170 per cent more likely than your average consumer to have paid for digital music in the last month, and over half had paid for a movie in the previous month.
Most surprisingly, torrent users still buy physical copies of music — nearly half had bought a CD in the past year, and one in ten still buy vinyl copies of records.
Overall, the survey (which, obviously, should still be taken with a fist-sized pinch of salt) paints a very favourable picture for BitTorrent: its users are among the most profitable for the very movie and music businesses that are trying so hard to get torrents shut down. Really, though, all it proves (yet again) is that the current model for buying music is broken. Whatever the solution is — whether it’s shaped like Spotify, iTunes, or BitTorrent’s own paid-for Bundles — it can’t come soon enough. [Torrent Freak]