Last week, a story made the Internet rounds (including on Loudwire) about how Iron Maiden used data on what countries were pirating their music the most to plan a lucrative South American concert tour. Turns out the story was not accurate.

Original source CITEworld has retracted their story, issuing this statement: “Due to writer error, an original version of this article stated that Iron Maiden used MusicMetric’s analysis to plan its South American tours. MusicMetric did not work directly with Iron Maiden. The analysis described in this article was carried out without the band’s participation or knowledge, and we have no confirmation that the band ever saw or used it. CITEworld deeply regrets this error, and we apologize to our readers.”

In a Nov. 29 article published in The Guardian, a MusicMetric official mentioned Iron Maiden's BitTorrent data and how Brazil was one of the biggest file sharing nations. CEO Greg Mead was quoted in the article, saying the following:

"With their constant touring, [the] report suggests Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans. This is clear proof that taking a global approach to live touring can pay off, and that having the data to track where your fan bases lie will become ever more vital."

That story was morphed into Iron Maiden using the data to plan a South American tour, which was not the case. Numerous outlets (including Loudwire) picked up on the erroneous story, which quickly spread across the Web. Bands using piracy data to help plan tours might be a tool that's used in the future, but there's no confirmation that Iron Maiden used this method.

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