Bone records are crap (but good souvenir), in Soviet era it was impossible to buy even mainstream records from America or Europe, except for one source - overpriced black market dealers, it was a crime back then. So people made bone records in terrible quality to re-sell them.
At the same time nearly all Melodiya presses of foreign LPs in USSR are bootlegs and musicians never get paid even if they are Rolling Stones or similar big names in show business. Melodiya is one and only record label in USSR.
They did the same with books, in one of his interview Erich Maria Remarque claimed he never get paid for any of his books translated to Russian, he was extremely popular here and they sold millions.
They also copies Japanese photo cameras and hi-fi audio equipment, simplified them to release on local market under new Soviet trademarks.
Chinese can do the same now.
At the same time nearly all Melodiya presses of foreign LPs in USSR are bootlegs and musicians never get paid even if they are Rolling Stones or similar big names in show business. Melodiya is one and only record label in USSR.
They did the same with books, in one of his interview Erich Maria Remarque claimed he never get paid for any of his books translated to Russian, he was extremely popular here and they sold millions.
They also copies Japanese photo cameras and hi-fi audio equipment, simplified them to release on local market under new Soviet trademarks.
Chinese can do the same now.