Record labels are pointing to the dramatic rise in music sales in Sweden, just months after the country introduced anti-piracy laws, as evidence of what a similar crackdown in Britain could do to the flagging market.

Figures from the record labels association IFPI Sweden show revenues rose 18% in the first nine months of this year, a significant reversal from seven consecutive years of decline. Much of the rise came after April's implementation of an anti-piracy law and a ruling against the operators of The Pirate Bay, the filesharing site. The two events generated a great deal of interest and deeply divided debate about copyright in Sweden.

"The increase in sales in Sweden, set against the backdrop of innovative new digital services and tighter copyright laws, is encouraging," said John Kennedy, the chairman and chief executive of IFPI.

"It is too early to say if Sweden has permanently turned a corner, but we hope that users there will permanently switch from unlicensed filesharing networks that give nothing back to the music community to great value legal services whose operators recognise continuous investment is needed to discover and promote the talent of tomorrow."

Ludvig Werner, who chairs IFPI Sweden, said even if the new law had not changed people's perceptions of whether copyright owners should be properly remunerated, it had changed their behaviour. A crackdown on illegal sites combined with the spread of legal sites supported by advertising had helped push consumers from one to the other.

"It's like speeding, put up cameras and people will start to ease off the gas pedal. Even if it doesn't change the attitudes, they find legal alternatives because they don't want to get caught," he said.