According to a new set of studies, it would appear that artists, musicians and movie stars, who are currently engaged in impressive legal battles with peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing websites, actually owe most of their popularity to these sites. Teenagers who share music and films with each other, even if they do so by infringing on the copyright of the large corporations, in fact make up most of the crowds that participate in concerts and other shows in their respective town.

A study released by the PRS for Music research group has found that the most downloaded tracks on P2P sites are identical to those that can be found in the top spots of international charts. Conversely, as far as new bands go, this type of sites has shown no direct correlation to the success or the failure of these groups, and hasn't proven to be able to assist them in finding or developing a larger target audience. However, the P2P community is starting to become one of the most reliable sources for finding and sharing music, and the new study compares it to the radio in that regard.

Over the last years, newspapers and radios have experienced an immense drop in popularity, due to the fact that most of their users have moved to the online environment. As a result, they are going through a drop in sales, which is also accelerated by the fact that the Internet gives rise to new ways in which music is marketed and sold. A huge role in this is played by the immensely wide variety of tunes that can be streamed live or downloaded from the web, not necessarily from P2P sites.

“Much of the volume (sales or swaps) is concentrated amongst a small proportion of the available tracks. After taking into account some geographic differences, the top of the many music charts, from licensed and unlicensed venues, are markedly similar,” the authors of the new study said. “If the sellers sell it, it might never be bought; but if the swappers offer it, at least one person will likely take it,” they added, explaining that music companies could orient their attention towards smaller bands, with dedicated followings, rather than a few famous acts, BBC News reports.