PayArtists Analysis Reveals Lil Wayne Is Currently The Most Downloaded Recording Artist In The World!

Malibu, CA (Top40 Charts/ PayArtists) - PayArtists, Inc., a provider of digital media technology solutions, announced the launch of its proprietary PayArtists P2P Top 40 Chart today at p2ptop40.com. Traditional music charts are based on retail and online sales which totaled less than 4 billion units worldwide in 2009. The PayArtists P2P Top 40 is based on a much larger universe of unauthorized music downloads which totaled more than 40 billion units worldwide in 2009. Songs from Lil Wayne hold the top position of most unauthorized downloads making Lil Wayne the most popular recording artist. PayArtists assists recording artists in recouping lost sales from the more than 40 billion songs downloaded each year on which artists do not get paid.

Hip Hop is the Most Popular Genre

Tommy Funderburk, PayArtists CEO, said, 'We found it remarkable that even though unit sales of Hip Hop have been decreasing versus other genres of music over the last few years, in actual popularity, 6 of the top 10 unauthorized P2P downloads are Hip Hop. Based on our research, entire Lil Wayne discographies, individual Lil Wayne tracks, and mixtapes featuring Lil Wayne are downloaded more than 10 million times a year on peer-to-peer networks. The PayArtists top 10 has many other familiar names including:

* Eminem
* Lady Gaga
* Jay Z
* Kanye West
* Rihanna

We were also interested to see that fans all over the world regard icons like Elvis, Tupac Shakur, and Michael Jackson as essential members of the top 40 most popular artists in 2010.'

P2P Top 40 May Be More Accurate Indicator of Popularity

Funderburk went on to say, 'According to Soundscan, in 2009 rap album sales were less than a third of what they were seven years earlier and the genre placed sixth overall. Soundscan is only measuring the retail and authorized downloads which totaled roughly 2 billion units in 2009 in the US. Our data shows that in the universe of the more than 40 billion unauthorized downloads, rap and hip hop are by far the most popular genre of music.'

Christopher Sabec, PayArtists Executive Vice President, stated, 'Additionally, unlike unit retail sales of music which have been steadily decreasing over the last few years, P2P consumption is growing tremendously. Cisco stated in The Wall Street Journal in April 2010, that file sharing accounts for approximately 35% of all global internet traffic, more than twice as much as web browsing and is forecast to nearly double from 2010 to 2013. We feel that in contrast to traditional industry charts based on declining retail sales, the PayArtists P2P Top 40 is a potentially more accurate gauge of an artist's popularity being drawn from the larger and growing P2P file sharing networks.'