Pirates Paying for Music

Michael Giberson

Freakonomics links to a post at Gizmodo which cites a recent study out of Norway that says people who download free music are 10x more likely to pay for music than people who don’t.

Gizmodo is relying on Google translations from the Norwegian, which can be a little rough around the betalingsvilje, if you know what I mean. (I don’t, since I don’t know what “betalingsvilje” means, and apparently Google translate doesn’t either because the term is passed into the translated text unchanged.)

But translation issues aside, the conclusion reported above certainly seems believable. Folks who download free music, whether legally or not, are likely people with higher-than-average demand for music. These are the people also most likely to pay, right?

NOTE: A few more minutes online suggests that “betalingsvilje” means something like “willingness to pay.” Source.

ANOTHER NOTE: In the comments at Gizmodo, a writer establishes his credentials to comment on the subject by saying, “I pirate my fair share of music, but…”  Arrrgh! Following the pirate’s code, he be.

LAST NOTE: The main point of the Freakonomics post was to mention a musician who is giving away songs via Twitter.