Stream-ripping – the act of obtaining a permanent copy of content that is streamed online – has seen growth in recent years with search engines still providing a large share of traffic to these sites and services.

Key findings

• Usage of stream-ripping services accounted for 80.2% of the top 50 specifically music infringing sites.

• The stream-ripping service with the highest usage in the UK, by far, is the stream-ripping site y2mate.com – the recorded usage in October 2019 for this site amounted to 47% of the combined top 50 specifically music infringing site usage.

• The legitimate service most abused through stream-ripping is YouTube

• The primary method of obtaining content via stream-ripping services is through the conversion of a link to a file using a stream-ripping site

• The main entry points for stream-ripping services are direct access to the services’ domain and search engines.

• For stream-ripping software the source of traffic is almost the opposite – primarily through organic search.

• Stream-ripping download sites are directly accessed 69% of the time; whereas the entry point for users is more evenly split for stream-ripping sites, with direct access at almost half, 49%, and access through search making up 46%.

• Web-based stream-ripping services rely predominately upon advertising for revenue. However, stream-ripping apps, stream-ripping plug-ins, and stream-ripping software also include payments as a source of funding.

“This report shows that music piracy is very much still alive and kicking, and that stream-ripping is now responsible for a mammoth proportion of the overall piracy problem.”

Simon Bourn, Head of IP and Litigation, PRS for Music