Illegal streaming sites brought in $227 million last year

There's been plenty of turmoil of late regarding how music streaming sites such as Spotify and Pandora don't pay enough out to musicians based on the number of plays they get. This may or may not be true. However there is little doubt that at least Spotify and Pandora are paying the providers of their products something. The Digital Citizens Alliance estimated through research that illegal streaming and torrent services brought in more than $227 million last year, and naturally didn't pay out anything to performers.

Illegal sites essentially only have to worry about technology and manpower, so their profit margins tend to be way higher than any honest online business. The DCA estimates that the average "large" BitTorrent services make more than $23.18 million a year, an estimated 94.1 percent profit margin. These large sites are represented by around 45 total entities that bring in 62.5 percent of all profits. Which isn't to say the smaller pirate stations aren't doing well. A small BitTorrent site break in more than $2 million a year.

But how? The whole reason why trolls use pirating sites is so they don't have to pay the fees associated with more straight-laced programs like Spotify. Anyone who's been on a sketchy domain such as Pirate's Bay knows that advertising is the name of the game. The reason why these sites are making higher and higher profits is that "premium advertisers"-supposedly reputable brands like Geico, Sony, Comcast and Domino's-are allowing their advertisements to appear more and more on legally questionable sites. The DCA estimates they make up 30 percent of all advertising on those sites now.

And no, they can't play the advertising-placement-ignorance card anymore.

"The technology and services to identify and filter out content theft sites are available and should be adopted in the online advertising community," the DCA's report read. "Just as brands do not advertise on porn or hate sites, they can easily take steps to assure they are not on content theft sites."