17 September 2012 Last updated at 00:46

A glimpse at piracy in the UK and beyond

• UK's 'top piracy city'
• Most pirated near you?
• Nation's piracy habits

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.

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Who is the most illegally shared artist near you?

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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

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Piracy ranking (shares per person)

1. 1. Manchester
2. 2. Nottingham
3. 3. Southampton
4. 4. Liverpool
5. 5. Sheffield
6. 6. Leicester
7. 7. Stoke-on-Trent
8. 8. Glasgow
9. 9. Cardiff
10. 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.

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• 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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