EU Commission report says piracy “doesn't harm” digital music sales

New research from the European Commission shows that file-sharing “does not harm” legal sales of digital music, instead having the opposite effect.

The EU body recently filed a report that samples 16,000 people, coming back with findings that there’s a “positive link” between users who illegally download and those who purchase music through legitimate means.

The report says that legal sales would actually be “2% lower” if P2P filesharing sites did not exist.

The paper reads:

“Our findings suggest that digital music piracy should not be viewed as a growing concern for copyright holders in the digital era. In addition, our results indicate that new music consumption channels such as online streaming positively affect copyrights owners.”

You can take a look at the entire document here.