PROMO ONLY NOT FOR SALE

jjfad027

Was this ever strictly enforced by distributors or anyone for that matter?

Breez

Back in the day, early to mid 90's, Def Jam & a few others were getting pretty upset with the amount of promos that were getting sold from record pools. I was directing Direct Drive Record Pool here in B-More and we would always sell our extras to Music Liberated (a local store) and the local promoters were trying to "crack down" on this but they were doing it too. The only people that were catching heat, from what I can remember, were the urban promotion directors at the labels. I recall store owners removing promos from their racks when artists would do in-store appearances.

Horseleech

There have been intermittent attempts at enforcement over the years, but they never seem to amount to anything. Everyone in the music biz knows that promos are given out as a form of compensation, so it's a bit hypocritical to say the least.

I believe the Supreme Court ruled that blanket lending agreements such as these, absent a specific agreement, are not enforceable. Any lawyers here know the skinny?

DOR

A big portion of what I did back in the days was promos. I won't really speak on it, just because it was kinda a shady thing.

But there was a case before the court when labels were trying to get people to stop selling promo material. They lost under the first sale doctrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group_v._Augusto

DOR

Dbl post

jjfad027

Thanks for that link.

LaserWolf

DOR said:

A big portion of what I did back in the days was promos. I won't really speak on it, just because it was kinda a shady thing.

But there was a case before the court when labels were trying to get people to stop selling promo material. They lost under the first sale doctrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group_v._Augusto

Good link.

As the link shows, from time to time over the decades the music industry has tried to enforce the no resale.
Record stores that buy new from the majors generally try to avoid selling promo copies.

In the 80s promos were a big part of payola. All the promo only colored vinyl and special packaging on Prince and Springsteen and other superstars were meant to be sold by the recipients in exchange for air play.

dj_cityboy

yeah i never could quite figure out the "Promo Only" stickers and stamps on records that were being sold for $15...i felt like calling out dudes who practiced this back in the day here...hell! i recently bought some records with "Promo Only" stamps on it...

thanks for the link!

DOR

Well, the reason you paid for promos in stores was... For the most part, record stores paid for those promos. In all my years dealing with labels, there was only one dude giving promo records to stores for free. And he didn't last long in that position.

tuneup

great link.
thanks for that.

rkellysbabygoatsanctuary

from my record store experience, it was bad form to sell promo stamped items as "new" but as long as it wasnt a new release, there was no eminent problem selling it as a used record. the owner of my story was far more wary of bootlegs, and while he might not have followed every letter of every law, if it had been risky he wouldn't have done it.

DOR

tuneup said:

great link.
thanks for that.

Good to see you post. Haven't seen you since NYC. Hope all is well...

Would have been interesting to have a convo with you on this back in the day ha.

bull_ox

What's far more ridiculous is when the industry was trying to stomp out the sale of used CD's in the 90s...

Horseleech

bull_ox said:

What's far more ridiculous is when the industry was trying to stomp out the sale of used CD's in the 90s...

With Garth Brooks as the spokesman.

I guess having hundreds of millions wasn't enough for him (he's the best selling solo artist of the 20th century).

Rockadelic

In the early Ebay days (late 90's) they had a policy against selling Promo which I have to assume that was initiated by the major labels.

In '87-'88 I discovered the dumpster at the local WEA warehouse. All the promos that they sent out that were returned went into the dumpster and my brother and I would hit it twice a week and literally hauled off tens of thousands of promo CD's, LP's and 12" over a 2 year period. We sold them to all the local stores and word got back to us that WEA suspected that an employee was stealing this stuff because there were more promos showing up in Dallas than they sent to the entire state of Texas. At the end of '88 they moved the warehouse to a new location and when they did they filled the dumpster to the brim every day for 2 weeks with posters, promo items, etc., etc. We hauled out stuff like Metallica glow in the dark vinly 12", REM interview discs and 200 copies of a Prince poster that had been recalled due to Prince not liking it. My brother put himself through college with what we found in those dumpsters.

At the new location they wised up and put the dumpster in a locked, enclosed fence.

jaymack

wow. that sounds crazy.

DOR

Too bad artist were usually always charged by labels to recoup those costs...


Side note. One of the main problems with going digital. Losing rights of what you can do with the music you buy and at the end of the day and more importantly loss of the first sale doctrine.

mrmatthew

Rockadelic said:

In the early Ebay days (late 90's) they had a policy against selling Promo which I have to assume that was initiated by the major labels.

yeah, i remember way back when i did my first few sales i had a few items pulled due to using the word "promo" in the title line.

flatblackplastic

pr0m0