YouTube Study Shows that If Platform Disappeared, Piracy Would Flourish

Many fingers point towards YouTube and blame the company for hurting legal sales for allowing some content to be hosted on the platform. The reality, however, may be quite different, as a study commissioned by the company shows that YouTube actually steers people away from pirate sites. 

YouTube is by far the most popular video-watching platform in the world. In fact, the company casually announced back in February that viewers watch over 1 billion hours of videos every day. 

But this status makes a lot of people, mostly copyright holders, quite unhappy.  The site is being accused of being a DMCA-protected piracy haven, exploiting legal loopholes for profit. 

YouTube doesn't agree with this and has commissioned a study from RBB Economics to see what exactly is the impact of the service on the music industry. 

What would you do if YouTube was no more? Pirate!