Is Your Expensive Imported Vinyl Actually Genuine?

German police have brought a two-year investigation to a head with a raid on what is believed to be one of Europe’s largest illicit record-pressing plants.

As Uncut reports (via Billboard), last week's extensive operation – which included preliminary investigations conducted by intellectual property protection association proMedia, co-ordinated internationally with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in London – yielded the seizure of “a significant number” of CDs, DVDs and vinyl records from properties in Aschaffenburg and Hessen. The seized material is still under evaluation.

State prosecution will now pursue charges against an as-yet unnamed suspect for activities involving “large-scale” reproduction of copyright-protected material.

According to the German Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI), CD sales (€1.45 billion, or about $A2.09 billion) made up about two-thirds of Germany’s total music purchases in 2013, a gain of 1.2 per cent for the year after 15 years in decline.

Vinyl in Germany, however, fares much worse, with retailers reporting sales declines of up to 60 per cent as recently as 2008.

“With a market share of about 70 per cent, there is still a high demand for CDs in Germany,” BVMI chief executive Dr Florian Drücke told Billboard.

“The equipment found here demonstrates once again that this is not the work of petty criminals, but of professional organisations whose criminal activities inflict massive damage on artists and the recording industry.”