No Rock And Roll Fun

IT'S THE RETURN OF THE ZOMBIE FORMAT: The ultimately pointless "pocket-sized" three inch CD is to be resurrected by the necromancers at Universal, in a move that's meant, somehow, to try and prolong the life of the single. The only real difference from the original mini-CD is that there'll be some ringtones included on the disc, but that doesn't really seem to require a different size of record.

The mini-CD was originally launched shortly after the introduction of CDs, at a time when the price of compacy discs was astronomical and falsely inflated by record companies implying they required a factory on Jupiter and the expertise of blind Himalyan monks to produce. Shrinking down the size of the silver circle was seen as a way of creating a cheaper, more friendly format for singles - akin to the 7" and its relationship with the 12" album. Of course, it was a flop, in exactly the same way the 2004 return will be.

Firstly, three inches of CD is way too small - you don't want a record that could be swallowed by anything larger than kitten; they're tricky to store; impossible to browse easily and it's a bugger for them to be displayed on shop shelves. Secondly, the whole concept of "pocket" Cds is meaningless - you still need to have a normal sized CD player to hear them on, so it's not like you've suddenly created a wonderfully portable format for the good of all mankind. Indeed, that the 3" was laughed at first time round should have been enough to put Universal off; to try and bring it back in competition with the totally sizeless mp3 smacks of madness.

Good news from Universal, though: they're axing copy-protected CDs from Germany. Hopefully, the rest of their world will follow.