10 Websites Known to Offer Pirated Music

As the debate regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act wages on, musicians and fans alike are in agreement that the problem of piracy must be tackled. Experts estimate that the physical medium of compact discs may be abandoned as early as next year, with hopes that legitimate digital downloads will help to bolster the struggling industry. The following ten sites are known sources of pirated music and revenue loss, and could find themselves in legal trouble or facing shutdown in the event of SOPA’s passing.

1. MediaFire – Like many file hosting sites, there are many legitimate uses and authorized files shared via MediaFire. However, the site exists solely as a hosting device; the content is dependent on user uploads, the majority of which are pirated music.
2. MegaUpload – One of the most recognizable names in the data locker/file sharing world, MegaUpload has been the focus of artists and record labels for quite some time. Offshore hosting has allowed the site to escape serious trouble with the American legal system.
3. 4Shared – Another data locker service, 4Shared is such a recognized source of pirated music that search engine giant Google has chosen to block their auto-complete algorithms from displaying the 4shared name.
4. The Pirate Bay – The Swedish torrent site The Pirate Bay has been dubbed “The World’s Most Resilient BitTorrent Site” by users after shut-down efforts are consistently ineffective. With an estimated 3.5 million pirated files, TPB is one of the biggest sources of illegal music downloads in the world.
5. BeeMP3 – Offering individual song downloads as opposed to the full-album variety common on other sites, BeeMP3′s search function crawls uploads all across the web, returning download links to files matching the search terms.
6. MP3 Raid –Metasearch engine MP3raid organizes files posted online into an easy-to-use format, providing users with links to illegally shared content. Similar to BeeMP3 and hosted in
7. Plixid – Because all of the files are hosted on other servers and only made accessible by Plixid, the site’s disclaimer states that the site administrator is not responsible for illegal posts or user action.
8. YouTube – While music posted on YouTube can’t be directly downloaded, record companies have turned their focus to the video-sharing giant due to the use of copyrighted music in user videos. The advent of smartphones has allowed YouTube to act as a streaming service for portable devices, leading industry insiders to push for removal.
9. FileSonic – While FileSonic is essentially a free service, the options for unpaid users are quite limited. Prompts to upgrade to the paid plans are frequent, and one of the things that draws ire from most musicians. Collecting a fee in order to distribute stolen property is one of the reasons that sites like FileSonic are being rightfully targeted by anti-piracy groups.
10. BTJunkie – Another torrent file clearinghouse, BTJunkie hosts nearly 4 million active torrents, is the fifth most popular torrent site on the web and is the largest indexer of torrent sites in the world.

The RIAA claims that upwards of $12 billion are lost each year as a result of online music piracy around the world. Illegal file sharing is blamed for the loss of 71,060 American jobs and a loss of more than $400 million in tax revenue.

Taken From Internet Service Providers