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Sony Music have caused a stir announcing that from May onwards they will abandon the traditional promo CD as a means of pushing music and focus on a digital e-card system.
It’s not an entirely new system as Sony do already use this system for a number of releases along side the traditional route.
Their reasoning is, well, reasonable. It’s relatively green, space saving and much cheaper with no physical stock to produce or transport. The view is that much more can be packaged into a digital version with photos, and, press packs, and other content with every release.
Sony is the first to announce this switch to the digital side and it looks like this could potentially be the mood of other majors.
Not everyone however perceives the switch as positive or indeed viable. On his blog one of the founders of Development Hell Ltd (Publishing The Word / Mixmag), David Hepworth writes
“This time it matters because it’s part of a process which is going to see the end of ‘review sections’ in magazines as we know them.”
Although music industry folk and fans alike are often on the cutting edge of technology with social networking, media players and yes, downloads, they are also more often than not sticklers for tradition, regardless of how much space that takes up.
It’s still very much an open debate as the opinions of Editors and Reviewers alike are divided in welcoming the switch.
Maybe it just boils down to what you like or maybe the stakes are much higher.
Either way, stay tuned. That’s all folks.