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McDonald's Billion-Song iTunes Giveaway
camperslo writes "The New York Post online
has this story.
"Less than a month after Pepsi announced a blockbuster deal to give away 100 million downloads from Apple's iTunes music service to its customers, McDonald's is close to a announcing a much bigger deal"." No matter what you think of iTunes, this is tremendous publicity for music on demand services in general. If the public gets a taste for it, this could be the beginning of the end for the audio CD.
this could be the beginning of the end for the audio CD.
...but what if you like the audio CD? what if you prefer lossless music, with coverart, booklet and printed media you can hold in your hand?
Mike
Except for the fact that a lot of good indie labels and songs are on iTunes now as well.
I went shopping recently. I was seconded to another company for a while, and my trip back from work took me past Majestic Wine Warehouse. I walked into the shop, and noticed that they had a bar with a few bottles open, and a sign saying `Tasting Counter. Customers, please help yourselves'. I did, and then browsed for a while. There were a couple of helpful assistants who provided me with advice on what to buy. It was actually an enjoyable experience. As far as I can see, this is the only way in which meat-space shops can compete with their cyber-space counterparts; by providing a value added service. Most shops are absolute hell to visit (it's impossible to find things, staff are useless, and you have to queue for ages to get out), and so any alternative is welcome.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Whatever journalist wrote this should be sent home without lunch!
What the hell do you mean unclear?
Here, let's take a stab; Pepsi Co. announces 1 million song giveaway via redeemable codes on their three main product bottle caps. 1 in 3 caps will have a code valued at $0.99. Hundreds of thousands of iTunes Music Store users are now poised and ready to only drink and purchase Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist for the duration of the promotion because there really is no reason to purchase any other product since none of them are possibly giving you back $3 worth of music per 6 pack!
McDonalds announces promotion where the purchase of any combo meal will include a peel off sticker on the french fry container with 1 code redeemable for a free song valued at $0.99 at the ITMS. Promotion to continue until 1 billion free songs are given away. Millions of iTunes Music Store customers now opt for lunch at McDonalds since it's the only fast food offering where a $4 happy meal includes a $1 song reward. There's no reason to eat at Burger King.
You can watch for these bottle caps and happy meal stickers to be auctioned off enmase on eBay about 3 hours after the first promotion starts.
Collecting iTunes Music Store free song promotion codes will become the new baseball card of the 2004 summer.
Well considering that the deal between Apple and Pepsi allow you to use the credit on any song you want, I am betting that the McDonalds deal is going to be similar.
Sapere aude!
I seem to recall some jaded audiophiles griping about how limited digital sound was... ;)
You are inventing restrictions of the giveaway with no basis in fact. You make a statement about how you "doubt they are going to be kind enough to give away just ANY free download." You then use that statement to back up your belief that "they are already entered talks with various record labels about which bands will get pushed." Why spread FUD?
The previous arrangement with Pepsi lets you download whatever you want. Apple has stated repeatedly that they want to give all labels equal exposure (as in you can't buy better placement) in the Music Store.
t'nera semordnilap
Maybe, maybe not. The last figures I saw showed that 45% of sales were toward full album purchases. iTunes is selling a lot of singles, but there are also a good deal of whole albums being sold.
Not only that but this will actually serve to push albums back into the main stream. It will no longer be profitable for a band to have 1 or 2 good songs and then poop out 9 mediocre ones to fill an album. Now if you want to sell an entire album you will make an entire album of quality songs. Those bands that concentrate on the super singles will find themselves left in the dust, since a single makes 1/10th the amount a full album does.
Sapere aude!
According to Dutch news, DVD sales have exceeded CD-Audio sales this year.
One popular Dutch artist is actually going to stop putting his music on CD, going DVD-only. (only returning to CD if DVD sales, against expectancy, aren't high enough)
There's several reasons for this
- DVDs cost about as much as DVD-audios here
- You get a LOT more value for money (various performances, videos, interviews, etc.)
- They think it's a little bump in the way of piracy.
The latter, as far as the music goes, is of course pointless to the educated masses.
But given the choice between
A. an 'expensive' DVD-R, spending quite a bit of time downloading the content, and optionally printing things out
or
B. the original without all the fuss, for not all *that* much money
I think B is going to be a choice for many.
The end of CD audio, at least here, started when people realized they were getting little value for money when compared to alternatives such as DVDs.
I wonder if it's less overhead for Apple to do it this way. When I buy a song with my credit card from the store directly, some small percentage of the $0.99 must be going towards credit card fees, etc. When they do it through retail vendors like McDonalds and Pepsi, they probably get a fat (overhead-free) check from those folks, who in turn absorb the overhead of collecting that cash.
Sure, there are other costs invovlved in managing that kind of program, but if Apple sets it up well, they could actually be increasing their profit by making the retail vendors pay for some of those costs.