Music
A massive, illegal music pressing plant was discovered in Germany
by Mark Teo
July 14, 2014
While Germans everywhere are undoubtedly celebrating a rousing World Cup victory—and ich gratuliere to everyone in Allemagne—the country has been hit with another shocking bit of news: After a two-year search, police have uncovered a massive illegal pressing plant, and have seized a large number of illicit CDs, DVDs and yes, even vinyl. It’s reported as being one of the largest illegal pressing plants in Europe.
If you’re confused, so are we: Wait, people are still buying CDs en masse? There’s still a bootleg vinyl market? Um, what?
Apparently, the Germans listen to music differently than the rest of the world: While most of us rely heavily on streaming music—a habit that some believe will spell the end of the digital download and result in the music industry bottoming out in 2019—Germans still love physical formats. Shockingly, reports Billboard, after 15 years in decline, CDs are actually rebounding in Europe—and they account for two thirds of all music purchases (!!!). Vinyl, for its part, saw nearly 50 per cent growth. And roughly 20 per cent of all sales were digital.
Their music industry might, in fact, be so strong that they’re still supporting a black market for physical formats. Who knew?
It seems quaint to us, but CDs are a huge industry in Germany—sales came up to roughly $2.1 billion. And German authorities think found that the illegal pressing plant could damage their unusually strong industry.
“With a market share of about 70 percent, there is still a high demand for CDs in Germany,” German Federal Music Industry Association CEO Dr. Florian Drücke told Billboard. “The equipment found here demonstrates once again that this is not the work of petty criminals, but of professional organizations whose criminal activities inflict massive damage on artists and the recording industry.”
