A glimpse at piracy in the UK and beyond

Data collected by monitoring firm Musicmetric, and seen exclusively by the BBC, has given some insight into patterns of illegal downloading across the UK.

Using this tool, you can find out who, according to the research, is the most pirated artist near you - as well as learn which other acts are particularly popular nearby.

Who is the most illegally shared artist near you? Please enter a valid UK postcode You must have Javascript enabled to use the data search facilities on this page. Illegal file sharing in the UK The most illegally shared artist near you is shared on average times per month in People here also share a lot compared to the UK average Search again Piracy ranking (shares per person) 1. Manchester 2. Nottingham 3. Southampton 4. Liverpool 5. Sheffield 6. Leicester 7. Stoke-on-Trent 8. Glasgow 9. Cardiff 10. Leeds See below for global ranking Top 3 illegal shares in the UK 1 Ed Sheeran + 55,512 shares on average per month 2 Rihanna Talk That Talk 35,838 shares on average per month 3 Frank Ocean Channel ORANGE 28,239 shares on average per month



*Not your area? The search will show results for the closest town or city to you in the list of data collected by Musicmetric.

All of the data used has been released under a creative commons licence and can be downloaded here.

Top 20 sharing countries

The United States tops the bill as the country with the most illegal shares, with the UK in second position.

Here we show the top 20 downloading countries, the total number of torrent downloads over the past six months and the most popular shared artist in each country.

1 United States 96,868,398 total shares Most popular artist Drake

2 United Kingdom 43,314,568 total shares Most popular artist Ed Sheeran

3 Italy 33,226,258 total shares Most popular artist Laura Pausini

4 Canada 23,953,053 total shares Most popular artist Kanye West

5 Brazil 19,677,596 total shares Most popular artist Billy Van*

6 Australia 19,104,047 total shares Most popular artist Hilltop Hoods

7 Spain 10,306,829 total shares Most popular artist Pablo Alboran

8 India 8,965,271 total shares Most popular artist Billy Van

9 France 8,400,869 total shares Most popular artist Sexion d'assaut

10 Philippines 8,351,260 total shares Most popular artist Maroon 5

11 Mexico 7,522,865 total shares Most popular artist Jesse y Joy

12 Netherlands 6,671,428 total shares Most popular artist Birdy

13 Portugal 5,597,198 total shares Most popular artist Pablo Alboran

14 Poland 5,059,204 total shares Most popular artist Gotye

15 Greece 4,919,567 total shares Most popular artist Billy Van

16 Hungary 4,470,948 total shares Most popular artist Pitbull

17 Chile 4,210,641 total shares Most popular artist Los Bunkers

18 Romania 4,152,252 total shares Most popular artist Billy Van

19 Sweden 4,074,594 total shares Most popular artist Laleh

20 Belgium 3,880,900 total shares Most popular artist Gotye

*Billy Van allows album to be downloaded by torrent, encouraging donations from fans

Photos: Getty Images, AFP, AP, Sargent House, Chris Stanford Warner Bros Records, Dog Day Press, PA, Reuters, Random Records, The Collective, Billy Van.

Data provider: Musicmetric

Produced by: Dominic Bailey, Harjit Kaura, Steven Connor, Marina Shchukina

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