The Vaping Friar

The new hotbed of piracy was located in C. St. Petersburg factory of the society "Tonefon". Having conducted a small "marketing research", the purpose of which was to identify the most purchased records of artists, Neva flibusters, led by their ataman Mazel with special zeal, began to replicate the records of the most popular artist M.A.Emskaya. Being the wife of Dmitry Bohemsky, who knew everything and everything in the music business, she, working in the popular genre, managed to register in almost all the firms that existed then in Russia. Her discography consisted of more than 300 discs! It is not surprising that her new successful record did not have time to appear somewhere, as pirated copies popped up in a couple of days later. According to the frank and cynical confession of Mazel himself, he sold tens of thousands of discs, not paying her, of course, a broken pennier. "-Paul," the artist cried, "not much that this gentleman robbed me, he also made me a murderous advertisement. Discs of "Tonopher" do not give the slightest idea of my vocal data ..., it turns out a solid hoarseless voicelessness and some old sickness ..." But Mr. Mazel, who produced his "high-pit-fiction copies" under the etiquette "Aurora" and "Tonophone" did not care at all, because "money does not smell."

Soon Mazel had competitors, acting in exactly the same ways as he himself. Once Maselle was furious that the "firms" "International Extra Records" and "National Records" It was released faster by pirated discs, which were also prepared by Tonophone. Masel threw on the floor the records brought to his office, began to trample them with his feet, saying "Here's crooks, her''s the .bassaars!" The magazine "GRippedworld" asked: "Will the government still allow the open theft of foreign property to be murderously indifferent silence for a long time?"

The question remained unanswered, and Tonophon continued its black business. A whole factory was already working on the Fontanka: ledgers were kept, sales agents traveled all over Russia - and all this was based on the most frank fraud.
-Alexander Tikhonov

And here is what A.I. Iron writes: "The company" Tonophone Record "was a small Berlin society that opened its branch in St. Petersburg. The director of the branch was K. Mazel, who organized a series of Russian records in early 1910. The beginning was successful, soon in St. Petersburg was equipped with a small gramophone factory, which was headed by the son of K. Mazel - I.K. Mazel. The new factory began its work in the spring of 1911 under the name "Sound".