I was browsing Discogs, and I was really intrigued (and somewhat taken aback) when I ran across this East German Kylie Minogue release for sale. I was also surprised to learn some time ago that the German disco band Arabesque (also popular in Japan) was very popular in the Soviet Union.
I know all Western music was not banned there, but how did the licensing work under socialism? Were these authorized releases that resulted in royalties for the artists or some kind of state-sponsored bootlegs? Who decided what music would be allowed for import? Was a lot of music banned for "decency" reasons (I know that Soviet ВИА groups were held to high standards of personal behavior), or just overly political songs?
Also, what about releases in the West by artists from the USSR / Warsaw Pact? Did capitalist record companies pay them royalties? Who got the money?
I know this is a broad topic, so feel free to concentrate on the situation in particular countries and decades.
While I don't know much about the "official" way of music coming across borders, there were many ways average citizens could distribute smuggled music amongst themselves. People would copy music from other copies, and even from Radio Free Europe transmissions. In a way, a low tech version of file transferring and counterfeiting.
i remember reading a thread about a similar thing on here some time ago... there it is: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/26z28q/theres_an_episode_of_doctor_who_set_on_a_russian/
though its mostly about the music available and theres not much about specifics of the copyright etc.