'Limewire was so popular for music file trading, and for so long, that its closure has had a powerful and immediate effect on the number of people downloading music files from peer-to-peer services and curtailed the amount being swapped,' said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.Īfter Limewire was shuttered because a U.S. But some figures that are hard to argue with are those gathed by NPD Group in a survey of more than 5,500 people conducted in January 2011. There are convincing arguments coming out of both sides. That's a long standing debate between the RIAA and its watchers that won't be settled here. 'Why? Well, because music piracy might not have much of an effect on music sales in the first place,' Ernesto, TorrentFreak's founder and editor-in-chief, wrote. It has, according to NPD Group, a leading market research company, and more than anyone could have predicted - but will labels see a corresponding uptick in their latest revenue figures? TorrentFreak, which first picked up on NPD's numbers, doesn't think so. When the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) successfully lobbied the New York District Court to shut down Limewire last October, many of those label executives, desperately trying to keep their industry afloat by forcing old profit streams to flatline (rather than continue their precipitous decline), assumed music piracy would fall. Record label executives are celebrating today.

Limewire music