Music Biz Can't Dodge Piracy: Study

Offering fans cheap online access to music doesn't make a dent in illegal downloads, a new study of Radiohead’s latest album shows. Although In Rainbows was released online for whatever fans wanted to pay, it was illegally downloaded millions of times, reports the Financial Times. The study advocates accepting the inevitable. "It’s time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want," said a co-author.

“The expectation among rights-holders is that to create a success story you must reduce the rate of piracy—we’ve found that is not the case,” he said. “These non-traditional venues are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular, and will never go away.” (More copyright stories.)