Flyposting wasn't the only marketing tool used by record labels that came under attack this year - though this one was criticised from within the industry. With more or less every national newspaper giving away cover mounted CDs more or less every week the debate on whether cover mounts were good for the music business got increasingly heated. Cover mounts certainly help sell newspapers, but many in the music industry had long reached the conclusion that they didn't, as the newspapers had once claimed, help sell music - if anything they dissuaded consumers from buying proper albums, especially compilations.
The major record labels generally remained quiet on the topic – some deciding the few grand they made every time a track from their back catalogue appeared on one of these CDs actually providing a useful extra revenue stream. The music publishers also shied away from the debate – they too make a healthy income from the newspapers. However key artist managers, the big retailers and (to be fair) some of the record labels became increasingly critical - with some artists and labels issuing blanket cover mount bans.
Of course - as is always the case in these things - what was needed wasn't reactionary boycotts or complicated licensing agreements, but a bit of creative thinking. We're biased of course, cos we were involved, but we can't help thinking the new music CDs CMU's friends at BigTime produced for the Evening Standard and the Mail On Sunday proved the cover mount is a medium that can, in fact, be as beneficial to the label as to the newspaper. Which goes to show two things - firstly that most challenges in the music business can be overcome with a bit of creativity, and secondly that CMU is right on more or less everything, so pay more attention next year will you?