Slashdot Mirror
Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs
grub writes "If you're one of the people that wins a free download from Apple's iTunes during the upcoming 100 million song giveaway from Pepsi, then check out Tune Recycler. They say: "With the Tune Recycler, you can send us your unwanted iTunes bottlecap codes and we'll use them to support independent music. Easy for you, and good for musicians" Sounds like a great idea for payments that may otherwise be tossed in the trash."
Even the Tune Recycler site admits that Pepsi and Apple are expecting that a majority of the "winning" bottlecaps are going to be ignored and unclaimed. If this kind of site encurages more returns than antisipated, might this prevent there from being a repeat of this promotion in the future?
How long before extra itunes codes wind up on ebay in lots? Will that be an appropriate thing to sell?
Who's picking which songs will be downloaded with the turned-in codes? How do we not know that this isn't being set up by a group of artists who want to boost their own sales? Is there any way for additional artists to sign up to get a cut of this money?
It looks like this promotion is limited to Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist, none of which interest me. Wither Mountain Dew? Are they intentionally slighting geeks?
Schnapple
"When you submit a winning Pepsi code to the Tune Recycler, we'll redeem it for music from honest, independent labels."
Just because a label is independent doesn't make them honest. There are shady businesses everywhere.
I don't think you will have to mail anything. It sounds like you will be able to enter the code directly into their site. They might get a few takers. I'd do it.
" Which Musicians are Getting the Money?
Every week or so, we'll be choosing a few independent artists and a particular album of theirs which we will repeatedly purchase using the donated codes. If we buy enough copies of a single album, we might even be able to move it up the iTunes charts-- it's not too hard these days. All the artists will be from independent labels with reputations for treating artists fairly.
How do I know you guys aren't just going to buy music for yourself?
Well, we run the music activism project Downhill Battle, which is working to bring positive change to the music industry. A central theme of our site is that it's simply unethical to purchase major label music. So clearly, if we wanted free major label music, we'd just take it. Furthermore, since iTunes is essentially a voluntary contribution system (you're paying for something that you could get for free), there's just no incentive to scam people out of bottlecaps. We're just trying to make it easier for people to do something good with their caps instead of throwing them away."
Holy Shit, Batman! Score another one for the "can load the page before hitting reply button" team!
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Their machine would be pretty impressive to me if there weren't other types of artists out there in much greater need. I mean, you can't swing a friggin' cat without hitting some longhair with a guitar. But a painter, sculptor etc? Have fun trying to "get paid" for that.
Cheers. :)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Why does this group want the codes given to them?
Wouldn't a better plan be to link to some of the better indie artists on the service and tell people to download their songs, therefore allowing people to actually listen to the music their code purchased?
I would feel a lot better about this if there was some public accountability from Tunerecycler. Do we get statements? A redemption receipt? Summaries at the end? Anything?
As an independent musician, I find it odd that they have never responded to an email asking for more info from an artist's POV - especially when asking for clarification on their stance on iTunes downloads. Silence can often speak volumes.
If this was simply a list of all the bands and labels at the iTunes store (with proper documentation) that you SHOULD support by redeeming the caps yourself, I would be all for it. But there are enough holes here (and enough errors in the so-called label "tree") that I wouldnt touch this thing with a 3 metre pole.
Have fun. Listen to music. But dont get sucked in.
(DISCLAIMER: The band I am in offers ALL of our CDs for free on our web site, all the time. iTunes wouldn't touch us if we were the last band on earth. Whether or not you use the caps, recycle them, or paste them on a squirrel, makes no matter to us.)
-- There are two kinds of motorcycles. 1: German. 2: Crap.
I think a better approach would be if all slashdot readers (or tunecycler advocates) would get indie music. tunecycler could list a new artist or song to check out every couple days, and pepsi-guzzling geeks could get a free song. That would put money in the indie artist's pocket and expose more people to their music, something their approach doesn't do.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Apple's Official Rules for the promotion state that the, "Maximum number of valid Codes per email address/person that can be entered at the Web Site is 10 per day and 200 total throughout the Promotion Period." I wonder how these guys are going to get around that?
What kind of codes are Pepsi and Apple using in the bottle caps. Are the codes following some pattern or are they using random numbers?? If they follow a pattern and it is true that only 10% of all codes are used, one could just boost his favorite independant artist, during the last day of the promotion and no one would notice (except pepsi that is) provided you found the algorithm, ofcourse.
John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
The problem is that Downhill Battle is, first of all, providing this service for people who have not installed or cannot install iTunes (such as Linux users). Secondly, they don't think that iTunes is a good idea, and they'd rather that people didn't use it at all. See their site iTunes is bogus.
Free Speech, Free Software, Free Culture
The site given links to RIAA Radar, a site that tells the relative connection between an artist and the RIAA. A better solution would be to go to that site and discover some new, independent music for yourself. That's actually what they tell people to do if you already use iTunes... they just want the caps if you don't want to bother downloading Apple's program.
Use them yourself and buy the independent music that's available from iTunes? That way, you're helping to support the independent artist, AND you're opening up yourself to new music!
Don't download that song you've heard a million times on the radio or something like that. Explore the musical frontiers...even if they're not that good, you'll never know unless you look. And you may find a gem.
If you DO find a gem of a song out there, you've "won" again in addition to the free download itself!
Just a thought.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Being a loyal Slashdot reader, I of course posted before RTFA in which it states:
I use iTunes, so why should I send you my bottlecap code?
You shouldn't! If you use the iTunes Music Store, we don't want the cap, you should redeem it yourself. However, we would strongly encourage you to use the cap to buy music that's not from one of the 5 major labels. The website RIAA Radar can help you figure out if music that you're thinking of buying is put out by a member of the RIAA. Use the tree to see what labels are just major label fronts.
This is what I'm going to try to do.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
The problem is that the largest difficulty in getting a consumer to redeem the bottle cap certificate is having them remember not to throw it away, and instead bring it home and type it into the computer.
This recycling idea counts on people bringing home their caps but NOT redeeming them. I'm really not quite sure why anyone would want to do that. I certainly have a whole bunch of music I'd be more than happy to get for free one way or another, some of which includes independent albums.
Why can't they simply encourage people to buy music from indy groups, instead of essentially throwing the money away on licensed files that no one's ever going to listen to?
It's one thing to have big sales on iTunes, but if no one's ACTUALLY LISTENING to the music, what point does it serve?
>Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs
Can I recycle the "Always Coca Cola" jingle? It was cool at first (especially the Xmas version), but drives you insane after a while.
Yibble.
An easier solution would be to publish a list of songs (or links to them) from "honest, independent labels" and let people purchase them on their own. It would save them money on gathering the codes and may expose people to new music.
Just a thought...
The dogcow says "Moof!"
Sorry, but my gut instinct says it is.
The same group also promotes putting stickers on merchandice in stores. Without authorization from the store owner. That's vandalism (and not very bright that you can whois their domain and get their address).
People who endorse and encourage illegal activities normally aren't very reputable.
I'd be very cautious.
If you like the idea... why not just buy an an independant song off of iTunes yourself? That way your "recycling" yourself. And you know it will happen.
Sorry, I just don't believe criminals.
I am getting really sick of sloppy, idiotic journalists who absolutely insist on referring to those whom the RIAA has sued as "music downloaders," and the USA Today article is a prime example of this complete stupidity.
AFAIK, in absolutely not one single solitary incident has the RIAA sued anyone for downloading music files. They have only ever sued people for sharing music files in excess of a certain number, and even then only if the person is sharing a lot of popular, contemporary music.
Admittedly, those who are sharing files are more than likely downloading them as well, but that is not why they've been sued.
These journalists appear to be utterly incapable of doing even the most basic homework on this issue. One journalist mistakenly writes "The RIAA is suing people for downloading music" and every other journalist, rather than double-checking to see what exactly the lawsuits are about, just parrots what the first journalist wrote. It makes me ill. Thanks to the ever-shoddier American news media, people out there think that downloading "The Log Driver's Waltz" from Gnutella is going to result in uniformed officers kicking their door in moments later, which, at the moment, is simply not true.
As we all know, the RIAA is a massive misinformation machine, and now Pepsi and Apple are jumping in and lending a hand in distributing the RIAA's "We're suing everyone" propaganda. The truth is quite different, but I doubt that more than a handful of Superbowl watchers is going to jump online to ferret out the real story.
The promotion itself sounds like an effective one, and I'm sure it'll bring people to the ITMS in droves, but we really can do without the lies.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
I'm hoping that people are going to use my site to find new bands to buy with their free songs. Not in the mood to download more Radiohead? Click on Radiohead on Musicmobs and find a more independent artist that people that like Radiohead also like. Of course, there's no guarantee that what you are looking for will be in the iTunes store.