In Mexico, 97% of the population admits to pirating music

Digital Piracy, Media Piracy

A local anti-piracy outfit in Mexico has released new data that claims 97% of the population openly admits to consuming music illegally, with 50% doing so via stream-ripping. 

Less than a week after learning of BitTorrent’s continued dominance in global internet traffic, a new report has given us another perspective on piracy in 2018. The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) released data recently that shows virtually everyone (97%) in Mexico has pirated music. Another point claim indicates that eight out of ten Mexicans who consume pirate content believe that it’s not a serious offense.

Globally, Mexico is in the top five piracy-consuming nations, says Alfredo Tourné, general director of the Association for the Protection of Phonographic Rights (APDIF).

Ironically, Spotify has recently hailed Mexico for the city’s embrace of its premium streaming service. According to the company, Mexico City is the “streaming music capital” of the world, with 22 million citizens using the platform on a regular basis to consume music. That figure is larger than New York, London, and any other service.

In fact, Spotify says that the Latin American country now has “the biggest listener base in the world.”

How to feel about these figures is not so clear. On the one hand, more and more people appear to be embracing legal means of online music consumption. At the same time, however, piracy is rampant throughout the country. All we know for certain is that more work is needed.

James Shotwell