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German Cops Busted a Massive Pirate CD Operation

Turns out CDs are still very popular in Germany.
Image: oddech/Shutterstock

Following a two-year investigation conducted by German authorities with the aid of industry group Bundesverband Musikindustrie, pirate production facilities spread across several different properties in and around the small German city of Aschaffenburg were recently raided.

Sophisticated pressing machinery was found alongside "significant numbers" of CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records, which are alleged to have been produced in criminal violation of copyright law. According to Music Week, the underground pressing plant "is said to be large-scale and highly professional."

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It was also apparently quite active, which might seem a touch incongruous given what most of us consider pirate media in the year 2014. Yeah, there's the skeezy dude peddling freshly-burned DVDs in the Walmart vestibule, but that's surely the exception in a world with the Pirate Bay, right? Not in Germany, which is not only the technological birthplace of the CD medium—at the Polydor Pressing Operations—but also boasts a national CD market share of nearly 70 percent, compared to the United States' 31 percent and Japan's 63 percent.

Germany is an interesting case. Not only does the nation have an extraordinarily high reliance on physical media, but that reliance shows little sign of changing. CD sales in Germany fell by just over a single percentage point last year.

As for digital music sales in Germany, these are different to other places: while most of the world's downloadable music consumption involves singles and mobile purchases, the country isn't that interested in either one. Germany's download consumption comes not just in the form of full albums, but in bundles and box sets, which Music Business Research reports make up the lion's share of all downloads. Meanwhile, mobile downloads are barely even a factor in the German market.

With 17 competing streaming services, it would be tempting to infer the lack of downloads has to do with this abundance, but streaming's market share only occupies 20 percent of the full digital market. Meanwhile, the worldwide recorded music industry shows a streaming market share of 27 percent, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. So it starts to seem less surprising that Germany's Pirate Bay is a bunch of physical warehouses.

To follow the statistics further, let's make some suggestions as to what is even the deal with this format resilience. The site Music Business Research provides one compelling explanation:

The high market share of music genres with an appeal to an older generation of music consumers could be responsible for the relative stability of CD sales. German Schlager and popular folk music (6.8 percent), classic music (7.2 percent) and German-Pop added up to a market share of 20 percent (BVMI 2014: p. 43). Another evidence that supports this hypothesis is the solid market share of long-play formats of 60.5 percent. In contrast, the singles’ market is dominated by internationals hits with a market share of 62.2 percent (BVMI 2014: S. 44-45). Seven out of the top-10 albums can be attributed to the Schlager and popular folk music segment.

An additional possibility is hinted at in the IFPI report. Germany buys a lot of local music; seven out of 10 albums sold in the country were from "local repertoire." Perhaps in Germany this balance makes the perceived depersonalization of virtual media less desirable, even when you're stealing it.