Collecting Promotional Items

With some releases, especially those by major artists, or from a group a record label is trying to break, there will occasionally be special promotional items. These go out to journalists, wholesalers and retailers to spark interest.

The result, they hope, will be better coverage leading to increased sales, although that’s not always the case. But these promotional items, always produced in limited quantities, can become collectible.

Types Of Promotional Items

There have been as many types of promotional items as there have been marketing departments with budgets. Record companies have sent out small bottles of whiskey that have been specially labelled with the album and artist logo, for example, as well as condiments like maple syrup.

Beyond that there can be items ranging towards the mundane, including special covers on discs, badges, remixes, paperweights…a whole range of items. All too often a memorabilia collector won’t even know what’s out there until some of the items appear for sale.

Although they’re limited editions, as a general rule the promotional items don’t have a high resale value. They’re far from being one-offs, and the only value they have is to a collector; there’s no intrinsic financial value to them. Rather than at auction, they’d be more likely to go on an Internet auction site.

Music

The CDs and vinyl that labels send out to journalists for review are usually marked as “For Promotional Purposes Only.” Technically, the label could demand their return at any time. That, however, never happens. Often, those promo albums, as they’re known in the trade, will find their way into used record shops, sold on as a source of extra income for journalists.

It’s a chance for people to buy the album second hand and cheaply, sometimes even before it’s officially released.

Finding Promotional Material

Unless you’re in the music business or have a friend who is, getting hold of promotional material tends to be a matter of chance. Even then, there won’t be special promotional material for most artists. In tougher economic times, it tends to become quite rare.

You need to regularly check online auctions for the artists you collect, something you’d probably do anyway. The items will be likely to crop up before or just after a new release by the artist, if they’re going to appear at all.

A promotional CD is never going to be worth that much unless it was pulled from the schedule prior to release or the track listing was altered in some way. At that point it will become very collectible. In most cases the seller, as well as those interested in buying, will know the story and the price will increase accordingly.

As with all things, the promotional items are only going to be worth what someone is willing to offer. With tiny things like badges, this isn’t likely to be more than a pound or two. Even that bottle of whiskey isn’t going to fetch a great deal. It’s a novelty, and really only peripherally related to the artist.

Ultimately, promotional items are only likely to appeal to completists, those who have to own everything related to an artist.