Came upon this at beatlesource.com and thought it might have relevance to
the current P2P controversy . . .

Why would someone pay for a CD when they can download MP3s for free? 
Maybe a better question is "Why would someone pay big bucks for a CD if
they CAN'T sample it beforehand?"

g

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Bruce Spizer interview for The World Beatles Forum

QUESTION: "...but why did Capitol not issue promo singles until the
release of the Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane single?"

BRUCE SPIZER: "Capitol Records was the first company to prepare
promotional singles for disc jockeys. When they began doing this in the
forties, other record companies were trying to minimize airplay of their
records because they thought airplay would hurt sales! Their thinking was
why would someone pay for a record when they could hear it for free on
the radio? Capitol correctly thought people would want to buy a record if
they kept hearing it on the radio."