Mixtape Raids Hit Nashville

This is the first I'm hearing about mixtape raids in Nashville that occurred August 16th:
This month, the counterfeiting raids reached Nashville, when Metro police seized more than $21,500 worth of CDs and DVDs from two Nashville record stores, Platinum Bound and Key 2 Music...

The raids have dramatically affected Nashville's hip-hop scene, spurring local retailers and DJs to pull their product from store shelves and making it difficult for Nashville hip-hop fans to find the music.

In a reminder of major labels' deep involvement with mixtapes:
Nashville-based chain Cat’s Music enforced a chainwide ban on mixtapes after the raids. Jason Herndon, manager of the Cat’s in Hermitage, says the company’s vice president is waiting to hear back from the recording industry association about the material before deciding whether to restock the CDs. “We were under the impression that these types of mixtapes were sanctioned,” Herndon said. “The labels kind of turned a blind eye to them. There are record label reps in our store every week from every major label.”

Apparently legal cds were seized as well:
Underscoring the difficulty of determining which CDs conform to the law and which do not, Beach claims that about 200 of the 828 CDs seized by police from their store weren’t infringing on copyrights at all. “They were (CDs for which) a local artist had actually paid for studio time, wrote his own music, bought beats and melodies from local studio producers.”

Though there are a number of missing pieces to this story, especially the details of how these raids came about given that previous mixtape raids have been haphazard and not part of a national campaign, writer Dave Paulson does a nice job of sketching in background and creating context.

For more on previous mixtape raids see ProHipHop's Mixtapes category.