Music piracy was rampant during the first decade of 21st century. While streaming has done a lot to reduce digital piracy—it’s just too cheap, convenient, and clean to make piracy worth the trouble for most people—the issue of counterfeit CDs and vinyl is still a major problem.
There are rogue CD and vinyl pressing plants in places like Russia and China that are cranking out physical product, including a lot of stuff masquerading as highly collectible releases. Some will sell directly to music fans from sites that look and feel completely legitimate. Others ship product to retailers, who often don’t know they’ve ordered from a pirate. These copies are really, really good and can sometimes only be identified by experts.
What can be done? Very little, it seems, since whenever one online pirate site is shut down, it just shows up somewhere else. Bottom line is “buyer beware,” especially if you run across a “greatest hits” record that you’ve never seen before.
© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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