Study finds 84 percent of music and other media consumed in Spain is pirated

José Gaspar, Mansel Alcantra, Diabolito...Spain has a number of famous pirates in its history. Modern piracy is not nearly as exciting, but it does have any even bigger impact on the Spanish economy, particularly the music industry. A study carried out by representatives of the Spanish music, film, television and video games industries suggests that 84 percent of all media consumed in the country is pirated.

Music was the heaviest hit of the media forms, with more than 1.974 million illegal downloads committed during 2013. That's a sizable drop from the 2.118 million pirated pieces from 2012, but it still totals more than €6 million in losses for the Spanish music industry. Spanish labels are eating much of that cost as well, as 60 percent of Top 10 charting albums in the country are from Spanish artists.

The study suggests that much of the piracy is coming from a relatively small chunk of the population. Only 28 percent of those polled admitted that they partook in illegal downloading of music, compared to 40 percent illegally downloading films. The music downloaders were way more active than film hackers however, accessing nearly twice as many albums as others downloaded films. A large percentage of the downloaded music was from recently released albums.

If there's any doubt that pirating music cuts the earnings of the labels, stats indicate that there's nearly a one-to-one correlation between the two.

"Between 2001 and today the money Spaniards spend annually buying recorded music has reduced by 80 percent," said Antonio Guiasola, president of Promusicae, a Spanish music producers association.

Spain's government holds some blame in the matter however. Polls indicated that half of the illegal downloaders began doing so because of a 21 percent tax levied on "cultural goods" during 2012. That number has since been lowered to 10 percent, still steep in many Spaniards' eyes.