Which Australian #1 albums are pirated the most?
Music Rights Australia looked at the top five illegal sites and searched for Australian artists that have recently had a #1 Album on the ARIA Albums Chart. They then tracked which albums were torrented the most, which threw up some surprising results (a quick, not-too-dry explainer on how torrent files work is here).
As the graph below displays, of the 14 Australian records that hit #1 during 2013 and 2014, the recently-reintroduced INXS and their best of collection is far-and-away the most torrented. Of course, aside from the recent tele-movies introducing a young, tech-savvy audience to the wonders of Hutchence and co., INXS are also our biggest non-AC/DC musical export, which gives them a far bigger audience (pirate) reach.
Likewise, Keith Urban’s Fuse album, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Push Against the Sky, also ’benefitted’ from this international reach.
Meanwhile, it seems Thou Shalt Not Steal has slipped off the commandments list, as Hillsong United’s number one record Zion is far more pirated than efforts from Birds of Tokyo, Bliss N Eso, Bernard Fanning and Boy and Bear, whose music would seem to be more rife for piracy.
Pleasingly, EDM artists such as Flume and Rufus, and X-Factor alumni Dami Im and Taylor Henderson, are barely represented here, despite having much younger fanbase.
