This is something I've been wondering for a while now. People from the NME to small blogs and radio shows get inundated with promos, and I know from experience many of them contact bands saying "I love your music, can you send me your new single so I can play it on the radio." Well, if they love it so much, why don't they buy it?

I know promos are essential and people in the industry can't be expected to buy everything, but I wonder how many actually own the records they rave about and include in their end of year lists? Hopefully I'm wrong in this but I get the impression very few people do.

Thoughts?