Iron Maiden appreciates pirates. It's not just that the heavy metal band appreciates the outlaw ethos of musical pirates. Iron Maiden learned if you can't beat them, play for them. It works out in the long run. Iron Maiden took a page from the rulebook of Breaking Bad. The anti-hero show benefited from early piracy of their episodes. Breaking Bad wouldn't have been an international hit if pirates weren't illegally downloading episodes in countries it wasn't available.

Iron Maiden didn't beat music pirates in the courts. Iron Maiden didn't prosecute people who were downloading their songs illegally. Iron Maiden went to the countries that were hungry for their music and beat them with guitars. They played concerts that pulled in more fans. As Jesse Pinkman might say "magnets, bitches."

British heavy metal band Iron Maiden traveled the world to play concerts in pirates' home countries. The band sold merchandise, the bank pulled in new fans. Iron Maiden learned that their songs were being heavily pirated in South America. So they did what seemed most logical. Bring the real thing. Bring it loud and bring it heavy.

Iron Maiden did a major South American tour. They made $2.58 million from show in Sao Pãolo alone. They also pulled 5 million more fans to their online fanbase on social media.

Andy Patrizio of CiteWorld.com, said "In the case of Iron Maiden, still a top-drawing band in the U.S. and Europe after 30 years, it noted a surge in traffic in South America. Also, it saw that Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Chile were among the top 10 countries with the most Iron Maiden Twitter followers. There was also a huge amount of BitTorrent traffic in South America, particularly in Brazil."

According to Musicmetric Maiden's online fan base grew by more than 3.1 million social media fans in the 12 months ending May 31, 2012.