The Beatles have topped a list of the world's most pirated music acts.

Anti-piracy company MUSO have researched which bands and artists have the most illegally shared tracks swimming around the web.

They found that there are currently 187,687 Beatles files on the internet via a cocktail of cyberlocker, torrents and illegal streaming sites.

The band's initial rejection of iTunes and their continuing reluctance to have their material on legal streaming service Spotify may have contributed to their massive count.

Second on the list is Fleetwood Mac with 72,984 files whilst Bob Marley is third with 60,024 uploads.

Other names in the mix are Led Zeppelin, Cliff Richard and Stevie Wonder. In fact, all of the list's top ten are 'classic' acts, with Jimi Hendrix, Elvis and ABBA also featuring.

MUSO - who work with hundreds of music companies - got their results by monitoring websites which are compliant with its takedown requests.