Putting pop piracy on the map

A new study of British music piracy habits has found that Ed Sheeran is the most often
illegally downloaded artist of 2012, while Manchester is the UK's "piracy capital".

The report was compiled by Musicmetric, and the BBC has produced a guide to which artists are downloaded most in any given postcode, at bbc.in/PgoPC1. For example, W8 5TT, close to The Independent offices, is particularly fond of The Proclaimers.

However in Edinburgh, the band's hometown, they are well behind Sheeran and Noel Gallagher. Educated Oxford also likes Sheeran, but downloads a lot more of prog-rockers Yes than the rest of the country, while this writer's local postcode NW10 is keen on Frank Ocean's new album Channel Orange (not me guv, I paid for it).

Sheeran is, naturally, top of the list in his hometown of Halifax, though the locals also have a penchant for Cheryl Cole.