A torrent-based file sharing site has posted an article claiming that piracy (music/movie downloading) benefits artists.

The article begins with two fairly intuitive points. It begins by arguing that downloading encourages people to sample new music. It also suggests that by lowering the cost of sampling music to zero, people will be encouraged to sample more music.

The article begins to stretch however, when it contends that downloading of popular music will increase the money available to buy less popular music. Of course, it doesn't explain why someone who downloads popular music, wouldn't simply do the same for less known acts.

You can check out the article here.