Record company Lion Music will not sign any new artist until politicians have stopped illegal file-sharing.

Illegal downloading is killing the music industry, Finnish rock label Lion Music said as it stopped all signing of new musicians.

“We are NOT able to sign more artists. No demos or masters you send us will be considered for release. We will NOT listen to any mp3 files or check out your websites and we will NOT respond to questions regarding releasing your album,” the record company's head Lars Eric Mattsson wrote in a statement on its website.

“Our demo policy will not change before our politicians have stopped the P2P sites. Illegal file sharing is not just about stealing from rich major companies. It is about killing independent music and making it impossible for many great musicians to have a chance to release albums and have a musical career even as a part time job.”

The move came as Irish rock band frontman Bono wrote in The New York Times that file-sharing sites and internet provider benefit from "reverse Robin Hooding" and called for tighter piracy controls.

“A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us,” he wrote.

Still, new statistics indicate that record sale is on the rise. Last year become the biggest ever year for UK singles, according to recorded music body the BPI.

Research from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm also shows that earlier statements about the devastating effects by illegal piracy, claiming that the Swedish music sector has lost 60 percent of its turnover, are simply false. Despite the rise of illegal downloading, Swedish artists make 35 percent more money today than in 2000.