The topic of whether the covermount CD has outlived it’s usefulness comes up every now and then on here, so I thought it was worth mentioning that this month’s Mixmag has just dropped through my letterbox without a CD. But it does come with a little card (that I very nearly took for an advertising insert and binned) sporting a unique code for a download of the mix that would normally have been delivered on the CD.
The link doesn’t seem to work at the minute anyway (teething problems I’m hoping) and there’s no indication that this is a permanent change…
I like my monthly Uncut covermount and it goes on my MP3 player straight away. I guess for practical purposes I’d be better off with a download code so I probably wouldn’t notice if it went that way but I don’t treat it the same as other free compilations now so I wonder if I would if it was just another load of MP3s.
That “unique code on a little card” system is not very clever, isn’t it? The Wire magazine has been doing a similar mode for years – you can download their cover mount samplers (and much more) by simply using your subscription number.
But the majority of readers still want a ‘real’ CD. Even mentioning of probably switching to download (or ditching the jewel case) in Mojo apparently caused massive opposition. The same happened at Songlines magazine (and other music mags in Germany). Besides, both the Mojo and Songlines discs are much more curated and thoughtfully compiled than the Mixmag and Uncut CDs, while the Wire freebies are something else entirely – none of those out-of-copyright blues tracks or label promos for upcoming releases.
The jewel case is shockingly pointless. On the rare occasions I buy Mojo (normally at airports) it goes straight in the recycling, sometimes followed by the CD.
I can see a “free” CD as a selling point 10 or 15 yrs ago, but now? Just forget about it and take a quid off the cover price.
Presumably the publishers have a lot of robust, up-to-date consumer data indicating that people prefer to pay more money for the magazine and get the CD rather than pay less and not have it. If so, then I guess it makes sense to keep including the damn things.
Me, I’m with Dai, I rarely listen to them. There is so much music freely available to listen to on demand these days. If a group are featured in a magazine you can easily sample their music via itunes, Youtube, Spotify etc etc etc.
I always thought Mojo were missing a trick with their ‘songs that influenced’ type CDs.
I love blues music, but that has never been the way I’ve listened to it.
Surely if an act like, say, Jimi Hendrix was on the cover, getting maximum exposure for a forthcoming re-issue, negotiations could have been made to create a teaser for that release?
The Beatles back catalogue gets re-issued, so wouldn’t a primer be a good bet on all sides?
You tell us the new mono re-issues are brilliant, so put out a 12 track sampler via Mojo.
Mojo managed it with the C,S,N&Y 1974 tour box.
I tend not to listen to them,
It used to be exciting when a flexidisc or a cassette came free with NME, Select, Vox, Record Mirror etc. It was a very rare occurence so it was exciting when you got a freebie.
At some point it just became standard for every single issue of Mojo & Uncut and a few others to have a free CD tacked on the front so I’ve become a bit resistant – I’m not a big one for compilations and not into having lots of one-off tracks in my iTunes so I tend not to want to rip them. (I know, no pleasing some people is there)
What’s interesting is you’d think the iPad versions of magazines would be a great way to deploy the recommended tracks maybe embedded as links in the ‘magazine’ – nope, and in fact with the digital Uncut you don’t get the music at all (not sure about the digital Mojo?) – I’d be far more likely to check the music out that way.
I think Paste is the only magazine where a subscription gives you access to the downloads but then that’s only a digital magazine. I still think the Paste CDs in the old days of a physical magazine were, on average, the best covermounts there have been.
The ‘problem’ with music & the iPad mags is publishing rights and the money involved.
I think the Uncut discs (with their random sample tracks from upcoming or current albums) is pointless – if I want to hear excerpts from an album there are easier ways to do so. Songlines has a better way with this: they put a track each from their 10 top album reviews on the CD, so you really get to hear the “best music” from their view.
The Mojo discs are different and (not counting their out-of-copyright comps) much more interesting. Their themed CDs offer lots of new music, new artists and often also established artists in new surroundings (Max Richter doing a Beatles song, Flaming Lips covering the Beach Boys, a country version of “It’s All Too Much”, etc.) You can even find out that there’s a great band called, apparently, “She & Him”…
And people who throw these CDs away without having listened to them – if you buy a music magazine and don’t have an hour or so to listen to (more or less) new music, you’re not interested that much in matters musical, aren’t you?
The thing about the Uncut CD is that it’s (in it’s own small way) curated. I know most of the tracks are available relatively easily elsewhere but, when it comes to a new artist that I’ve never heard of, sometimes I need to have it shoved under my nose (usually I then put the earbud in my ear as it sounds better that way!). There are still a few artists that I don’t think I’d ever have noticed without Uncut and Paste CDs.