The statistics are huge, with one service attracting more than 60 million monthly users. 15% of adults in the UK are thought to make regular use of these illegal services. With a clear demographic of 16-24 year olds making up the bulk of those. Between 2014 and 2016, use of stream-ripping services rose by an incredible amount. Those older methods of piracy, done using file sharing websites. As well as software where the content was hosted on one computer or server and illegally shared with the world. Are becoming less and less used, perhaps due to the bigger risks and policing involved with them.

Included in the BBC article are a list of people surveyed about stream-ripping. The similar excuses trying to justify downloading. 31% didn’t want to purchase the music again, 26% wanted to listen to it offline, 25% wanted the same but on the move, 21% said they couldn’t afford the music and 20% felt music is overpriced. Without the means to justify their actions and the ability to steal the content to begin with, people should go back to either streaming the content or purchasing it themselves. In theory, of course.