Origin of CD cutouts

[musiquelover]

I've got several CDs in my collection that came with a cutout inside the barcode area on their back. This also occured with still sealed product in otherwise mint condition.

So where do these cutouts come from? Are they promotional copies? Or were they already produced as product with a defect to sell them for cheap?

Any information is appreciated.

[Bernie]

Every time I receive promo CDs they have a punch hole through the UPC bar code or are stamped as "Promo..."

[neonlights]

Hey..

Cutouts (especially on mint/sealed CDs) are a real pet peeve of mine.. So annoying when a seemingly perfect CD is marred by an ugly cut or hole somewhere..

Anyway, as far as I know, in addition to denoting promotional copies, cutouts are also used to indicate deleted titles or discontinued editions.. I believe the deleted/discontinued editions are "cut" by the distributors or the label who do that in order to sell them off at a discount price.. In both cases (promo and discontinued) the cutouts are there to purposely devalue the product, so that they either can't be returned to the distributor for full credit or resold at the full price..

That's what I know in a nutshell.. More info here:
dccblowout - Cutout
Foetusized Attempts to Explain Cut-Out & Promo CDs

[musiquelover]

Thanks for the replies so far.