TI and Shop Boyz made the most stolen music of the year

Study of peer-to-peer network data shows 2007 was the year of illegally downloading hip-hop
T.I. and Shop Boyz
TI and one of the Shop Boyz: were they the hottest artists of 2007? PR

As the final sales figures for 2007 come in, record labels and industry observers are busily putting forth their competing claims for the biggest songs and albums of the year. But if you really want to know what the "hottest" tracks of the past 12 months were then you have to take a peek online. If by "hottest", of course, you mean "most stolen".

According to a study conducted by Wired, 2007 was the year of downloading hip-hop for free. At the top of the top 10 list of songs shared on peer to peer (P2P) networks was crunk number Party Like a Rock Star by Shop Boyz, while TI, the American rapper born Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr, was the year's most pilfered-from artist overall.

The technology magazine based their conclusions on data collected from major music-swapping networks like BitTorrent and Gnutella by a firm called BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, a company that "tracks media-consumption trends across all digital channels - legal and otherwise". Aside from TI, the top 10 artists of the year - based on P2P downloads of albums and individual tracks - included rappers T-Pain, Akon, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.

As for the individual tracks, Akon's I Wanna Luv U was the second most swapped after Party Like a Rock Star and his song Don't Matter was fifth most swapped. Filling out that Akon sandwich were reggae-popster Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls at number three and East Coast rapper Mims' This is Why I'm Hot at number four.

While this illegal downloading data is surely bittersweet news to the hip-hop industry, which spend much of double-oh-seven bemoaning its decline in sales and popularity, for BigChampagne' CEO Eric Garland, what's really notable about the list is the dominance of singles artists. "Songs are the new currency online," he told Wired. "The volume of downloads for individual songs dwarfs the downloading of albums."

While Wired touts the study of file-sharing in 2007 as "the most reliable barometer for determining what's hot and what's not among the most tech-savvy media consumers", however, they could equally be criticised for only showing what's hot and not with young men who spend a lot of time on their computers - the demographic of the majority of P2P users.

Shop Boyz's Party Like a Rock Star tops the list of top songs downloaded through P2P networks, but it got stuck at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 this summer because of the stubborn hold on the top spot by Rihanna's Umbrella, a song that appears nowhere in BigChampagne's top 10. Meanwhile, other artists with tracks on Wired's "top songs of 2007" like T-Pain, Soulja Boy and DJ Unk have yet to make a really firm impression on the mainstream.

"If Soulja Boy and Shop Boyz would have sold as many CDs as they did singles, they'd be household names," Garland told Wired. "They'd be superstars on par with 50 Cent and Kanye West."

Likewise, it's Radiohead's focus on producing albums rather that hook-filled tradeable tracks that denied the much-talked-about band a place on the "top music artists" list, despite reports of one third of downloaders getting their pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows off of P2P networks.

"The only area where Radiohead was possibly the story of the year was complete album downloads," Garland said. "They aren't a singles band. Consequently, Radiohead has never done the kind of volume that these big video-driven stars du jour command."

Without further ado, here is Wired's full list of the top songs of 2007

1. Shop Boyz, Party Like A Rock Star

2. Akon, I Wanna Luv U

3. Sean Kingston, Beautiful Girls

4. Mims, This Is Why I'm Hot

5. Akon, Don't Matter

6. T-Pain, Bartender

7. Soulja Boy, Crank Dat Soulja Boy

8. Justin Timberlake, My Love

9. DJ Unk, Walk It Out

10. Jim Jones, We Fly High

And their full list of top music artists of 2007:

1. TI

2. T-Pain

3. Akon

4. 50 Cent

5. R Kelly

6. Lil Wayne

7. Justin Timberlake

8. Fergie

9. Ludacris

10. Snoop Dogg