Even if we don’t get a chance to listen to a lot of it, we appreciate all the music we get sent at FACT.

But the amount of CDs we currently get sent to our office is pointless. We have full-time staff working remotely as well as from our office, and we’re all far more likely to listen to something if it’s sent to us digitally – via a private stream or download link – than on a CD. Likewise, when we’re commissioning out promos for review, we’re always going to ask for a stream to be sent to our reviewer rather than request a CD for them or post them our own. Unless there’s genuinely no alternative, sending us CDs is wasting your time and money, and it’s bad for everybody’s environment – especially when packaged in plastic.

We love being sent vinyl, and we’ll always make an effort to listen to stuff that’s been sent on that format (we’re also, it must be said, partial to promotional tat – shout out the Bonobo zoetrope we received in the mail last month). But CDs, generally speaking, stack up, unlistened, until they end up in the bin. Unless there’s no alternative (i.e. a big album with no digital promos available) please take FACT off your physical mail-out lists.

We’ll be sending this out to all our press / label contacts shortly, but for those who miss it in their inboxes, we thought it made sense to double up and have it on the site too.