Promo Only series

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Guideline

This page describes the style to be used for Promo Only releases, these releases should be titled as follows:

Promo Only: Series Name, Month Full Year.

A list of Series Names being currently issued can be found below. All Promo Only monthly releases should be listed as Promotional, and Compilation. The Month and Year should be stated in full (October, not '10' and 2006, not '06').

Some of the issues, particularly in the Club series, are multiple discs, and are labelled A and B. Normal DiscNumberStyle applies to these.

There is also a sister company in Canada: Promo Only Canada. For those releases, use Promo Only Canada: as the initial title.

There is also another sister company in the UK: Promo Only UK/Europe. They do not at this time issue monthly subscription audio CD's, but they do issue Video DVD's, a couple of which have found their way into MB in the past. They shouldn't be entered, as they aren't audio releases. If they ever begin to release subscription audio cd's like the US and Canada companies do, they should use the prefix Promo Only UK

Background Information

Examples

  • Promo Only: Modern Rock Radio, October 2006
  • Promo Only: Alternative Club, March 2005
  • Promo Only Canada: Mainstream Radio, September 2004

Series Names

Current series (and what they contain) are:

  • Radio Series
    • Mainstream Radio - Top 40 Radio edits
    • Country Radio - Country singles
    • Urban Radio - R&B & Rap edits
    • Modern Rock Radio - Alternative Rock edits
    • Rhythm Radio - Edits of dance singles and pop urban singles
    • Dance Radio - Shorter radio friendly edits of dance singles. New in 2006, previously an intermittent undated series with "Issue Number X" where X is 1 through 25
  • Club Series
    • Mainstream Club - 12" mixes of popular music
    • Rhythm Club - 12" mixes of Urban, freestyle, Latin house, and Bass
    • Underground Club - 12 " Cutting edge dance music, mostly tracks and dubs
    • UK Club Beats - House, Club and Trance releases from the leading labels in Dance
    • UK Underground Beats - Progressive, Tech and Tribal releases from the leading Underground labels
    • Alternative Club - 12" Electronica and alternative dance
    • Urban Club - Extended club versions, remixes, instrumentals and acapellas
  • Latin Series
    • Tropical Latin - Salsa, Merengue, and Latin Dance
    • Regional Latin - Tejano, Banda, Tex Mex, Nortena
    • Pop Latin - Latin with a dash of Pop, Spanish Rock, Dance and Ballads
  • Christian Series
    • Contemporary Christian - Pop, dance, urban and rock, with christian and family friendly lyrics
  • Carribbean Series
    • Caribbean - An assortment of Island styles from Reggae and Dancehall to Reggaeton and Soca.

Extra Information

Some information that is generally useful to know if you are editing them, is how this works.

The releases are available on subscription only to members of the music industry, and you need to be a DJ or employer of DJ's (ie, a club owner or radio station) to get them. That hasn't stopped them leaking out onto P2P, or occasionally showing up in second hand stores or car boot sales, and they enjoy very wide distribution inside the industry. They are quite influential, and these discs are in fact partly responsible for what you get to hear on the radio; things that show up on Promo Only are getting heavy label promotion indeed.

One important thing to note is that the subscription discs are available in advance which means that like magazines, the contents are 'the things we expect you'll be playing on the radio by the time of the cover month' and the actual release date is the month before that on the cover. The real shipping date is always on the cover, but if you don't have the cover available, use the calendar month before the cover date or see Promo Only Ship Dates for additional information.

This guideline is intended to apply only to the monthly subscription discs in the above series. The label Promo Only Inc also releases occasional other compilations, such as "Best of 1991", they do not specifically fall under this guideline.