The Skinny On Promo CDs

There's a great article over on the Nashville Cream with the problem with Promo CDs. Basically, the music industry insists on sending physical compact discs as promotional material to press and radio. Not only is this hugely wasteful from an ecological standpoint but it's also incredibly bothersome if you're the kind of person that has a computer from the past 5 years without a CD drive. The article states all of these things and I couldn't agree with it more.

But here's the thing. There are a few comments on the article from "Veterans" of the industry and folks working in terrestrial radio that insist that having a physical presence is more powerful than a deletable email or more efficient than simply encoding the archive of CD's that already exist. All the arguments stem from laziness, antiquated habits or hands being tied because upper management isn't going to spring for new technology.

I don't want to go on a tear about something that seems somewhat trivial in the grand scheme of things but I also would love to understand why people are so quick to say "what can I do?" and give up immediately. This tactic creates massive waste and creates a barrier for worthwhile independent artists who don't want to pony up the money to make promotional copies of their album that will be thrown away. If you're a promoter or a record label, please stop doing this.