and let's not forget that piracy still allows for the most powerful form of advertisement - word of mouth. You might've not paid to watch something, but if it was good and you recommended it to your friends, they might!

back in the old Internet days the music studio Two Steps From Hell gained popularity nearly exclusively through piracy. I'm not even sure if they sold any albums before the widespread reupload of their music happened. I myself found out about them from a long deleted anime music video. And I have since bought several of their CDs and saw them live in Europe (after fans have begged them for nearly a decade to go on a tour). Would I have known they even existed if their music wasn't spreading like illegal wildfire in the early 2010s? probably not, which would be a shame because they're one of my all time favourite band-thingies idk how to call them