White label promos?

[Ted Bell]

I've been seeing a lot of these white label promo lps in used record stores and advertised on Ebay. Do they sound any better or is it just the novelty or rarity of having a promo lp (kind of like the colored or picture vinyl)?

Jay

[Sckott]

If you're a fan of the LP and you want to feel like "Mr. Collector", it's neat collecting white label promos. They're not always cheap, and usually come from old Radio stash, sometimes mint, sometimes trashed - just like most.

Having a white label promo doesn't mean sonic beauty. It means you have (usually) a very early copy marked only for radio stations and odd promotional use, like for magazine reviews and such. It's just the fact that these were some of the first out of the shoot usually, and have eccentric white labels instead of retail-looking colored ones.

Just like cutouts, these copies are marked as such so some numbskull doesn't try to sell them to a retailer or pass it off as defective "paid for" merchandise. White Labels are usually very rare, since initial ones are usually made in batches of 200 or less. It's a novelty and collectable thing. It doesn't have to do with sonics, specifically.

Some WL copies go for big money.

[Bob Lovely]

Ted,

I agree with Sckott's comments. Personally, I have over 200 12" promos of single releases (primarily 80's stuff). While the quality varies, many are of very high quality. I still use some them for recording compilations and I will often marvel at how good some of them do sound even by today's standards. Some are even 45 rpm! As a collector, you just have to be careful about what you purchase.

Good hunting!

Bob