The issue of intellectual property rights in the music
industry remains a hot topic, and the debate seems to intensify every time
technological advances are made. A new doctoral thesis from the School of
Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, shows that the total
incomes of music composers have increased significantly in the last 15 years,
despite the file sharing revolution.
Based on Swedish statistics from 1980-2009, the study
concludes that the music industry’s claim in the debate is true: it has lost
revenue due to illicit downloading. Yet the study also shows that the composers
have been able to increase their incomes substantially over the same period
through increased revenues from concerts, radio and TV. And their revenues from
music streaming have grown rapidly since 2010.