Russian Cds

[admin_exported]

Having recently discovered a wealth of new bands thanks to Last fm I'm in the process of buying a lot of new cds. However, due to the fact that the bands are mainly European and Scandinavian and most seem to be on the Nuclear Blast label they aren't particularly cheap in the UK from regular outlets. I've bought a few from a company (not sure if I can say who but they are based in the UK and specialise in 'metal' music) and the cds I've received are from Russia. Now these are definately not bootlegs or copies, they are genuine sealed cds from Russia on the IronD label who are the licenced from Nuclear Blast to produce and distribute in Russia.

All I want to know is;

A: Is this legal?

B: If it is legal would the bands still be getting their royalties?

C: How would the sound quality of these stand up against the releases that are meant for Europe?

Any thoughts would be most welcome before I order my next batch.

Cheers

Nick

 

[the record spot]

A) Likely not illegal, most likely "grey" imports. They're not available, I assume, or have any distribution agreement with a UK distributor (Cartel, Rough Trade, Cherry Red, etc.), so that probably in itself doesn't make them illegal items to own or import.

B) Depending on the nature of the contract the band have with their label, but you would hope so. There really is no way to tell. Of course, you have to be sure that the Russian manufacturer is genuine - there are some who produce Western CDs as 2 album sets. Totally pirated and about as near to royalty as I am. Well, in fairness, technically, I am quite close to royalty as Holyrood Palace is barely a mile away over the hill, but you get my point.

C) No reason why they should be any worse, if they are the genuine article, so it depends on the production, the mastering, etc. You'll only find out when you press "play". Other than that, no idea really - too many unknown quantities.

 

[wireman]

I too have ordered CD's from Russia, simply because I couldn't at the time find them anywhere else: They looked very professional, and sounded okay... but they hadn't been remastered as you might expect given their vintage. I later came across that artist's email address (he'd made a comment on an amazon site about another album of his which was generally available) and I emailed him to ask that very same question.

He replied to the effect that Russia, being behind the iron curtain at the time, were not part of the agreement made by the rest of the world agreeing to copyright laws... so there are no laws in Russia which entitle the artist to be paid as there is no such thing as copyright infringement there. So they're perfectly entitled within Russia to openly mass produce and sell any album (or book etc etc) without payment to the artist or author. He certainly has never received any payment, and still doesn't, and there's nothing he or anyone else can do about it.

The reason those albums hadn't been re-released over here was simply that there were legal issues (disagreements) regarding royalty payments between the band members.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input both of you. As I said, they are definately not copies or bootlegs and they are properly licenced by the original record label to the Russian label/distributor so they are completely legit..... providing you're in Russia of course. It does say on the back cover not for sale or distribution outside of Russia but then I doubt the Russians are particularly bothered who they sell to. The company selling them in the UK has been around for a few years and has a good few thousand titles for sale so I'm sure if it wasn't legal then something would have been done about it by now. I'd prefer to buy the European/UK versions but when I can get the Russian ones for less than half the price it's very tempting.

I read somewhere that they were so cheap in Russia due to piracy being so rife that the record labels licenced the music at low cost so that they could compete with the pirates and at least make a minimal amount of profit... or something along those lines. I guess if that's true then it sort of answers my question about royalty payments... or lack of. Just got to battle it out with my conscience now as to where to buy from.

Cheers