A study by PRS for Music's Will Page and BigChampagne Media Measurement's Eric Garland, entitled The Long Tail of P2P [PDF file], finds that P2P filesharing only makes popular music more popular — it doesn't lead to the discovery of less well-known artists.

"The study shows that the most pirated songs are almost always at the top of music charts such as Billboard at the same time," writes AfterDawn's Andre Yoskowitz. "The data notes that unsigned and newer bands were neither helped nor hindered by piracy. File-sharing networks have become somewhat of an 'alternative broadcast network' which now rivals radio stations as a way of hearing music."

"The gap between bestsellers and the rest is widening, Page and Garland conclude, a pattern also seen with movie and TV consumption too," writes The Register's Andrew Orlowski. "The authors cite one knock-on effect for live music promoters, who say bands fourth of fifth on a bill are relatively worse off than they were ten years ago. So much for the internet as the great leveller: you literally got lost in the noise."

"The upshot is that all this illegal downloading might not be as bad a thing as we'd all previously thought," writes T3's Adam Bunker. "Lessons to be learned are that the record companies should stop seeing piracy as so much of a threat, and more as a form of advertising."

More here from Wired ... more here from Idolator ... more here from Music Ally ... and more here from BBC News.