The industry association for artist managers in the UK have hit out at the use of free cover mount CDs by national newspapers to boost their sales. Although the record labels receive a fee for allowing their tracks to appear on the free compilations, managers argue inclusion on such CDs has a detrimental affect on their artists' record sales, plus the whole operation devalues music.
John Glover of the Music Managers Forum told the BBC yesterday: "Music is valuable, you should be willing to pay for it. The message you get from a newspaper is music is free. It devalues all of our artists' catalogues. It's madness - I don't know why our industry does this. That catalogue will be worth nothing in years' time because everyone will have got it for free."
Mr Glover, who currently managers British artists Go West, Tony Hadley and ABC, and has previously managed the likes of Victoria Beckham, Free and Mott the Hoople, continued: "I have now got here a massive collection of these free CDs. They're fantastic CDs but almost every artist I've ever managed since I started managing back in the 70s is appearing on these."
Glover's association is now asking other artist managers to stop their clients' music from being included on newspaper released free CDs.
Although some record labels have expressed their concern at the growing number of cover mount CDs being released, and the tendency for these releases to concentrate on back catalogue rather than championing new talent, others see the newspapers as a useful extra revenue stream. The major labels' representative, the BPI, is yet to comment on the MMF's call for a blanket ban on cover mounts.