The recording industry, which is currently lobbying to crucify pirates along every State Highway, might be a bit embarrassed by their latest sales figures.

For years the recording industry has been leaning on governments for tough laws on piracy claiming that the sales have been gutted by P2P and other digital technology. While many governments have rejected suggested plans to make thinking of copying a CD punishable by boiling in oil, they did believe that the industry was suffering. Now it turns out that the industry was suffering because it was peddling products that were junk using  formats that no one wanted.

As the industry started to flog its music online suddenly sales have started to rise. Recording industry revenues actually grew in 13 major world markets in 2009. Australia, Mexico, South Korea, Sweden, the UK, and Brazil were all among the countries that saw revenue increases. Rather than see it is because they have started to embrace digital music sales,  the Music Business says that it proves that its desire to hang draw and quarter pirates was paying off.

"South Korea and Sweden in particular saw striking returns to growth," said global recording industry trade group IFPI, "showing how an improved legal environment can help impact on legitimate music sales."

Sweden did get a new law in 2009 that gave rights holders a court-mediated method for getting the names of accused infringers, and The Pirate Bay admins went on trial.  However that is not logical as both of those tactics have been usable in the US for years and have not made the slightest difference to piracy rates. Mexico isn't cracking down hard on P2P users, yet revenue is up. South Korea has a three strikes law that disconnects repeat file-sharers, 30,000 infringement warnings were sent in the last year, but not a single South Korean has been disconnected and revenue is up too.

It is more likely that new business models making an impact. Sweden is the home of Spotify, a hugely popular European ad-supported music service.