...The Word's advertising department says to the label "we're going to feature one of your artists on next month's CD and we still have a couple of half pages available. You can have one of them for a small discount or you can have both for a slightly larger discount."

That's typical with the hi-fi magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Consequently, those manufacturers who get good reviews are frequently accused of something underhand, but that's not always the case.

that if an artist had a track on the CD, it would be common sense for them to have an advert. I don't think it is wrong even if they get a discount because they have given a track for the cd.

As for hand picked, I suppose it's a euphemism for not picked randomly or by a computer (or, indeed, not what our shareholders have told us to put on it). I'm fine with it.

'The Word - hand-picked by 15 artist's management companies with new product and a budget.

I'm sorry, but that's rubbish. Just like it says on the CD case, Andrew and Alex come up with a track listing of new recordings they like every month, with input from the rest of us if we pick up on stuff we like in the office. Simple as.

We do get approached by people who want to appear on the CD, but in most cases it's from artists struggling to get any kind of coverage at all, and we'd look pretty stupid filling up the compilation with such filler. Believe me, you'd be horrified. Instead, we fill it with tracks we like, and we think Word readers will like. Really we do.

As for advertising, being new recordings, it's only natural that we are asking for access to tracks at the same time as record companies are spending money advertising them.

And so yes, of course we approach companies whose tracks we've chosen with a view to advertising. Failing to do so would be idiotic. Not all of them do, and in some cases it's actually counter-productive. In these days of reduced record company spending a common response is along the lines of: why should I buy a quarter page in your magazine when you're already promoting the track? Surely I'd be better off placing an ad in one of your rival publications, a magazine where my artist is otherwise invisible?

Here's an example, not related to the CD, but it shows the environment we're working in: a few months ago, one of the monthly music magazines put a high profile solo act on their cover. The other magazines didn't. Where did the artist's record company place full page adverts? In the other magazines, of course. And how much did they spend with the magazine who had put their artist on the cover? Zero.

My musical tastes are almost the same as what is on the CD's.Nice to know that real people actually pick the music.

Corporate whoring of the worst kind if you ask me! You'll be wanting to turn in a profit next if you're not careful, then you'll be just a bunch of Tories feeding off the dripping blood of society's corpse.

Has just landed on the other side of the world. Have to say it's the most consistent CD in months.

For me the best Word CDs are those that part company with the magazine without destroying either the front cover or the CD sleeve (or both).

would it matter that much? On the whole, Word CDs tend to feature artists that don't get much exposure on radio or via other media, and for me the CD is always a good way to find out about new artists or what artists I liked a while ago are up to. So it doesn't matter to me whether Kate and Fraser arm-wrestle to decide if a particular song gets on, or the marketing "department" of Obscure Records pays the magazine a fiver to get a track from the latest album by Jens, Sven and Stig included and a half-page ad as well.

It was in a Wetherspoon pub close to the Bank of England. He was dressed in burgundy robes, his face hidden by a cowl embroidered, in gold thread, with the image of a pyramid bearing a single eye. A pair of withered hands guided string puppets of David Cameron and Ed Miliband around an untouched pint of London Pride.

I asked him if he was a member of the Illuminati – the sinister organisation that conspiracy theorists claim to be the shadowy orchestrator of all significant geo-political events and the V Festival.

He said that he wasn’t.

I possess a high-functioning autistic mind that that can discern patterns in everyday events. Often I am summoned by a secret branch of the Metropolitan police to solve cold cases. This evening I was reading the back of the WORD CD when the letters in the words “Now Hear This” began to rearrange themselves into a sequence of anagrams:

Wasn’t Wheat Rhinos the name given to a steroid-infused breakfast cereal eaten by CIA field agents during the 1970s and 80s? Isn’t it now available as a low fat alternative with dark chocolate pieces and chewy red bits that might be desiccated strawberries?

Hearths I own seemed to allude to plan to own all the hearths. Hadn’t I recently felt compelled to sell my house at a price significantly below the market value to a member of (WORD CD stars) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark?

Horas whiten hinted at a ploy to use the genial conviviality of the Hoary Old Rock Anecdote to conceal darker intentions.

By now Whats heroin seemed disingenuous. Clearly they were growing it on the roof of their offices and using the proceeds to buy more Wheat Rhinos.

Rhea hits now gave an inkling of the way dissenters were dealt with - silenced in the most brutal ways imaginable by the Australian songsmith - Chris Rea.

By the time Hater hos win appeared my course of action was clear.

Tomorrow I will compile my finding into a docket, or possibly a portfolio – I haven’t decided. The world must kn...

In my view, the cover CD is the weakest, least essential part of the publication.

I know I'm not the only person who does this, but most times it goes straight in the bin.

If the CD isn't a key driver of advertising revenue, can we have an occasional bit of variety on what's on the CD beyond random tracks from new releases by vaguely obscure artists?

Mojo and Uncut have had some terrifically good themed CDs which have persuaded me to buy editions that might otherwise have stayed on the newsagent's shelf.

Maybe The Word could do the same? I'd imagine that the creative minds at Word towers could come up with something even better than Mojo/Uncut's best offerings!

Don't go there. Been done to death that topic.

I did try to bribe Fraser with a copy of the Lee & Kenny Everett Cookbook at the last N.W. Massive Mingle, so if this track appears on a future edition of NHT! we know it works...

http://open.spotify.com/track/0bvAEhwJFLJNwcS86DlCP8 Groovy Bruce..!

and there is the suggestion that it is being compromised by commercial considerations, then criticism would be justified.

Otherwise, your point is what?

I'd like a luverly picture of sum luverly flowers and some free hemp seeds.

that final inclusion would have less to do with The Man and his advertising budget than it would an artist prepared to forgo their mechanical royalties in exchange for exposure to a discerning circulation of £50 guys?