A new report which has been published by the European Commission Joint Research Committee suggests that music piracy from illegal downloads does not harm legitimate, legal sales of music.

The report also implies that the ability to freely stream music causes a slight increase in sales figures.

The research for the report was carried out by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies who examined the internet habits of 16,000 people in Europe over the course of a year.

The report which is entitled Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data, says: "It seems that the majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them.

"Although there is trespassing of private property rights (copyrights), there is unlikely to be much harm done on digital music revenues.”

It goes on to talk about the relationship between free to stream music being readily available and music sales: "According to our results, a 10% increase in clicks on legal streaming websites lead to up to a 0.7% increase in clicks on legal digital purchases websites.”

The research has however been condemned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who say that the study was flawed and that the results are misleading.

"The findings seem disconnected from commercial reality," a statement from the IFPI reads.

"If a large proportion of illegal downloaders do not buy any music (and yet consume, in some cases, large amounts of it), it cannot be logical that illegal behaviour stimulates legal download sales and inflicts no harm."

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