Audio recordings were distributed in the UK by the use of covermounts in the 1960s by the fortnightly satirical magazine
Private Eye though the term "covermount" was not in usage at that time. The
Private Eye recordings were pressed onto 7" floppy vinyl (known as "flexi-discs" and "flimsies") and mounted on to the front of the magazine. The weekly pop music newspaper
NME issued audio recordings of rock music on similar 7" flexi-discs as covermounts in the 1970s. The covermount practice continued with computer magazines in the early era of
home computers. In the United Kingdom computer hobbyist magazines began distributing tapes and later
floppy disks with their publications. These disks included
demo and
shareware versions of
games,
applications, computer
drivers,
operating systems,
computer wallpapers and other (usually free) content. One of the first covermount games to be added as a covermount was the 1984
The Thompson Twins Adventure. Most magazines backed up by large publishers like
Linux Format included a covermount CD or DVD with a
Linux distribution and other
open-source applications. The distribution of discs with source programs was also common in
programming magazines: while the printed version had the code explained, the disk had the code ready to be compiled without forcing the reader to type the whole listing into the computer by hand. In November 2015,
The MagPi magazine brought the concept full circle and attached a free
Raspberry Pi Zero on the cover, the first full computer to be included as a covermount on a magazine. In other places, such as
Finland, covermounts on computer magazines never caught on. Instead, popular Finnish magazines such as
MikroBitti offered subscribers access to an exclusive
BBS via modem, and later via the
World Wide Web. Adding audiovisual media as a covermount has started with
music magazines adding covermounts in the form of sampler for promotional uses, using
compact cassettes as a storage medium. The cassette was in the end replaced by the compact disc. Apart from magazines also newspapers have discovered the covermount and started to add compact discs to their publications. Magazines are also including non-storage media like toys, games, stationery sets, make up, cross stitch kits and whatever the publisher believes will help the sales of their titles. In the
United Kingdom, many
television-related "partware" magazines (magazines aimed at collectors which build up to a complete set over months or years) have been launched in recent years, with covermounts containing episodes of the subject show (such as ''
Dad's Army, Stargate SG-1 or The Prisoner''). American musician
Prince was known for offering studio albums free with various newspaper publications. His 2007 album
Planet Earth was the first to be given this treatment, in the United Kingdom, in partnership with
The Mail on Sunday. This caused
Entertainment Retailers Association, a record company representative, to decry this practice as 'covermount culture'. His new album
20Ten was released in 2010, in Belgium, under the same circumstances, with the same happening for the album with other publications across Europe. Pop rock band
McFly too released a covermount album, which was
Radio:Active (their fourth studio album). Other artists known to release covermount albums are
UB40,
Peter Gabriel,
Calvin Harris and Soulwax. In April 2007,
EMI licensed the
Mail on Sunday to cover-mount 2.25 million copies of
Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells shortly before the rights on it were due to revert to him, something about which the artist was not best pleased. The
NME have also had a long history with covermount releases, from the influential cassette compilations
C81 anD
C86, mix albums like
NME Dust Up, mixed by
The Chemical Brothers, and
Beat up the NME, mixed by
Fatboy Slim, as well as albums in which you would have to send a token to the NME in exchange for the covermount release, including
Capital Radio by
The Clash and
Ally Pally Paradiso by
BAD II.
Demo covermount discs The initial purpose of covermount discs was to distribute demo versions of video games. Initial magazines, like
Amiga Format or
ST Format had one or more floppy disks with demos of upcoming games, but the fragility of the media and the increasing size of demos made publishers turn to compact discs, which were cheaper to produce, more resistant to damage, and had over 300 times more capacity. CDs became the most common storage media, but in the past several years, demos have grown from mere 50MB files to 500MB or larger. This discourages magazines from distributing most of the larger demos, unless the magazine has an exclusive distribution agreement or the title is highly anticipated. While in 1997 a CD could carry over 15 demos, in 2005 the typical CD had 5 or fewer. This led some magazines to insert a second CD, or to use DVD media instead. Covermounts came late to the world of
video game console publications. Since nearly all 8-bit and 16-bit consoles were
cartridge-based (with the exceptions of
Sega's
Mega-CD and
NEC's
PC Engine CD), covermount demos only began appearing in 1996, with the official Sega and
PlayStation magazines.
Full product covermount discs The trend of offering full versions appeared in the mid-80s, when magazines such as
Your Sinclair and Amstrad Action put full versions of software, usually games on their covertapes. These games, provided by distributors from a list of games with lesser commercial value, are also often found in budget range labels, and can range from older but highly regarded titles to unknown titles with little shelf space. Some games or expansions were released exclusively on cover media, such as
Moley Christmas in
Your Sinclair, or the expansion
Populous: The Final Frontier for
Populous. As access to internet gaming websites such as
GameSpot or
IGN grew, so did the importance of having a strong covermount. Others, like
PC Format used to distribute full versions of unknown commercial software, with a beginners' guide in the printed version.
Sensible Software made several games for distribution with
Amiga Power, like
Sensible Massacre (uses
Sensible Soccer graphics, where the player throws grenades at Dutch players, following the loss of
England against the
Dutch in the
USA'94 qualifiers) or
Sensible Train Spotting (related to the
hobby), the last game developed by the company for the
Commodore Amiga. Games redistributed by covermount occasionally have problems if the originals were fitted with
copy protection measures. If a buyer tries to apply a patch or update, there is a high chance of the game not recognizing a covermount
CD, as they are often reprints and lack the copy prevention sectors. Software publishers, both then and now, are often against the overuse of putting software on the covers of magazines as they see it is deflating the value of software. ==Price of covermount storage media==