Hounds of Love - USA Promo Flat

Original USA double-sided promo flat that was used inside of record stores back when Hounds of Love was first released - it measures slightly over 12” x 12”. This is also one of the oldest promo flats that I own. 

The front features the album artwork in full colour, and the back is a nice purple colour advertising some of the tracks from the album, along with some distribution information along the very bottom.

The U.S. promo flats tended to be more double-sided than the UK ones. The reversed side of the U.S. flats normally features additional information about the release, so as not to obscure the artwork on the front. In some cases they even featured some really unique artwork that was exclusive to the promo flat only, so it couldn't be found anywhere else. I've got a promo flat for the Mini LP that has some very unique artwork featured on the back, so if I ever manage to unearth it again I'll definitely post it.

Moments of Pleasure - UK Promo Flat

Original UK one-sided promo flat for Moments of Pleasure, which measures 12" x 12". Although this one doesn't feature any artwork, there were other ones made at the time that did - those particular ones feature the same photo that's found on the Moments of Pleasure 12" single, with the same information printed along the bottom as this one.

The Red Shoes - UK Promo Flat

Original UK one-sided promo flat for The Red Shoes single, which measures 12" x 12". Even though this promo flat doesn't feature any artwork, there were some made at the time that did. Those particular ones feature the same photo that's found on the front of the 7" single, with pretty much the same information listed along the bottom for the different formats of the single. I can't remember if that one makes mention of the film or not. 

And So Is Love - UK Promo Flat

Original UK one-sided promo flat for the single And So Is Love. Measuring 12" x 12" it features the artwork for the single, plus all the release info.

*Since this is the first promo flat I've scanned, I apologize if it looks at all wonky. It's very tricky scanning this in sections, then piecing it back together.

The Man I Love - UK Promo Flat

Original UK one-sided promo flat for the single, The Man I Love. Measuring 12" x 12" it features the artwork for the single. The reversed side is just plain cardboard.

Promo flats that advertised single releases tended to be more one-sided because, if you had a special display stand in your shop, which the promo flats slotted into, you could use the other side to promote another artist's single without obscuring any important advertising info.

The Sensual World - USA Promo Flat

Original USA promo flat that was put out by CBS records in 1989 to promote the release of The Sensual World. Promo flats were distributed to record stores to promote an artist’s album or new single. They were usually double-sided, but not always. The standard size of a promo flat is 12” x 12”, or slightly larger. In some cases they could be as small as 7” x 7”.

The front of this promo flat features the cover artwork of the album with the CBS Records copyright notice in the lower right-hand corner. If a promo flat was double-sided, the reversed side would usually feature anything from additional artwork, album tracks, release dates for singles/album or even the music company’s logo, etc. The back of this one has a copper coloured background, featuring a rose design. More than just advertising an album’s release, these things really are perfect for framing.

Not only have these become more difficult to come by these days (especially the much older ones), due to the fact that a lot of this stuff got trashed back in the day when an album’s promotion was over, but they also offered a lot of unique looking artwork that was never found on the albums or anywhere else. Just a shame that most people never saw the value in this kind of thing at the time.

Aerial/King of the Mountain - UK Promo Flat

Original UK double-sided promo flat for Aerial and King of the Mountain single. Although most older promo flats tended to measure 12" x 12", this one measures 11" x 11" in case anyone is wondering about that. Both sides are also in full colour.

The Aerial side features the album artwork, with info/web address along the bottom. The King of the Mountain side features the single artwork, with format release info for the single along the bottom.

The Whole Story - USA Promo Flat

Original USA double-sided promo flat for The Whole Story. Like most other promo flats, this one also measures 12" x 12".

The front features the same artwork found on the album. The quality of it doesn't look this bad in real life though. Since I'm replacing my original photos with scans, that also means I'm scanning this stuff in sections and piecing it back together - which doesn't look good. So I've fiddled with the resolution to try and hide this fact a bit.

The reversed side is advertising the album and Experiment IV as the new single.

The Red Shoes - USA store display promo flat

Original USA double-sided promo flat for The Red Shoes album. These were used inside of records stores at the time to promote the release. It measures 12" x 12".

The front features the album artwork in full colour, and the reversed side has a red tinted fruit background. It also lists a few of the tracks from the album, and has some copyright info for Columbia Records along the bottom.