P.O.D. album hosts Amplitude demo

Popular young person's rhythm combo P.O.D. will be offering fans extra incentive to buy their new album later this year - a demo of Amplitude, featuring a song that didn't make it into the game.

According to Mercury News, the first one million copies of P.O.D.'s fifth album will include the demo, which will allow players to dextrously tango their way through the various elements of a track called "Space". Space won't otherwise be available on the album, and wasn't in Harmonix/Sony's excellent rhythm-action game when it was released in the US in March, or in Europe last week, although P.O.D. did contribute a song called "Boom", hence the connection.

Execs at the band's label, Atlantic Records, reckon this move should help drive sales of the CD (whilst also taking the opportunity to pre-emptively blame any failure on rampant peer-to-peer file sharing services). And they're probably right - it's unusual, it's clever, and it's a good advertisement for the game and a tempting target for the game's many fans as they tire of the stock tracks. As Atlantic co-head honcho Ron Shapiro put it, "This is a package you are going to have to buy."

It's not yet clear whether the promotion will apply in the UK, but we've found a listing for an import copy complete with demo on Amazon.co.uk.

Atlantic is said to be considering further similar promotions.