The promo CD question

First off, I also have hundreds of promo CDs. Maybe more. The deal is this. When you write music reviews - and I don't do many anymore, but for years I wrote them for such places as Salon - the people at record company put you on lists. Then you keep getting free CDs. Even when you die. (I remember discs coming in for deceased writers when I was at the Boston Phoenix in the mid-90s.)

So what to do with the discs? I give some away. I turn some into coasters. But I never, ever sell them. See, that would be against the rules... not only those set by the record companies but also those enforced by my publication.

(Here's what happened when a film critic sold a bunch of DVDs.)

Still, I'm intrigued by this blog entry. It talks of the futility of record companies sending out unsolicited CDs and then claiming to hold all sorts of rights over them. This hits home to me because, every once in a while, I receive an unsolicited CD that is watermarked - i.e., given a digital imprint that is supposedly designed to trace it to me.

But what if I never wanted or asked for that CD. If I toss it in the trash and the janitor comes by and burns 4,398 copies of the new Celine Dion stinker, am I in some kind of trouble? I've always figured the answer is... maybe. So I either keep the watermarked discs or cut them up into teensy pieces.

What does all of this get at? I'm not sure. This story doesn't mean I'm heading down to Nuggets with a box of promos. But it does mean I perhaps won't worry so much when I'm handing out an unwanted CD to my mechanic.