Lucky bastards.
Well not really, I used to hate getting mp3 for reviews.
Poor quality in general and your doing free promo for the band/label and you're don't even get a CD for your efforts.
Dunno, this promo is 256 kbps mp3, and so are most of my music files on PC. CD quality is better, but nothing I couldn't live without. *shrug*
And I think our attitudes towards reviewing stuff are really the opposites. I'm not reviewing the albums for the band, and I certainly don't want anything for my efforts — if I like the album, I'm going to buy it regardless of having the promo files — I'm mostly doing it because I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts about music in general. If the band reads my review, great, if not, I know other people will read it and maybe end up checking out the album; and even if they won't, I know I had fun writing it.
And I'm not even going to do a review of this Vanden Plas album... another colleague of mine already snatched this one for her review list. So an early listen for free? I'd count myself lucky indeed. And I'm going to get this album on CD anyway, it's great, I'd say it's another contender for AOTY.