I can categorically state that the music CD is now worthless. How so? Well us folks in the UK are used to getting free CDs and DVDs with our newspapers, but the Mail on Sunday has raised the stakes somewhat. You see, while we are used to getting awful music compilations, the MoS has actually given away a full album and it is a corker. Yes, today I hold in my hands a copy of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” that I got free with my copy of the Mail on Sunday (no, I am not a reader, I just bought it for the CD). What does this mean? This means that other newspapers are going to have to compete now.
Similar parallels can be drawn with the various DVDs that are given away. A few years ago, these free video dscs were limited to single episodes of comedy programmes and compilations of comedy clips. I can’t remember when the transition happened, but it wasn’t long before entire DVD movies were given away and now I own a few of my favourite films, albeit in freebie format, this way. Highlander, Dune, Conan the Barbarian, The Wicker Man have all been given away as freebies and it must have had some effect on the commercial DVD industry. If you’d have told me 10 years ago that I’d be able to pick up an uncensored copy of “The Evil Dead” given away free with a newspaper I would have laughed in your face and called you a whey-faced loon. The same could be said of this here free copy of “Tubular Bells” – it would have seemed unfathomable 10 years ago, even 5 years ago perhaps.
So now we have “Tubular Bells” being given away for nowt. The psychological effect of this is to completely devalue the tangible product and I am kinda glad that I sold the bulk of my CD collection when I did. Other newspapers are bound to follow suit and it won’t be long before we’ll be seeing other classic albums given away. Now I am not sure if you’ll ever get “Sgt Peppers” or “Dark Side of the Moon”, but I am sure some other classics might be slipped inside the pages of your favourite Sunday newspaper.
The funny thing is that this CD is pretty good for a freebie. The audio quality is up there with my original version and when I put it into my PC Windows Media Player tells me the CD is encoded as HDCD, which shows that this isn’t some cheapo copy that the newspaper has squeezed out at the lowest price. This is a quality bit of compact disc.
The only sad thing is that the psychological value of the music album has been rendered worthless, a cheap commodity to be given away. So sad…but conversely, I suppose it gives people the chance to hear an album they wouldn’t necessarily buy. Is this good the music industry though? I seriously doubt it.
Anyway, here’s an interesting article about the album from the Mail on Sunday.
And here’s the TV advert that almost had me choking on my rich tea biscuits last night:

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