What Exactly Are Promos?

Promo's are copies of cds sent out to reviewers or advertisers or DJs or given out generally for publicity. They generally contain just a single track or certainly a cut down version of whatever the full release will contain. You'll probably have the standard artwork and depending on who the promo was aimed at, maybe a bit of PR spiel about the artist stuck over the top. My brother works for the BBC so I have a shit load he's sent me, all stuff that record labels have forwarded to DJs and they've chucked straight in the random freebies box.

Given that they're always free, I'd be loathe to pay someone for one over eBay, unless it was something particularly rare and even then you'd have to be a bit of an obsessive collector to bother. There are also some questions over the legality of re-selling promo cds, especially as most have "Not for resale" plastered over them in massive letters but I imagine worries about legality are the last thing on your mind.

Essentially, for something like the Assasins Creed soundtrack you might as well download it and burn it onto a cd yourself. It's not something that's ever going to become a classic album and the promo is essentially worthless as a result.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well it'll (probably) be CD quality but you won't get all the inlay card or anything and as you said, it could just be someone burning their own copy.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Bigblah

I don't know of anyone self-printing a CD with a barcode.

Apart from people wishing to pass off home made cds as promo copies that might be worth something on eBay of course and most of the promos I own don't have barcodes. The barcode font ain't exactly hard to get hold of is it? Anyway, that's still no reason to pay for a cd someone else got free.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.