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Apple 100,000,000 iTMS celebration
beef curtains writes "From Apple's iTunes Music Store Countdown page: 'When the number of songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store crosses 95 million, Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods -- one to the purchaser of each 100,000th song downloaded between 95 million and 100 million songs. In addition, the person who downloads the 100 millionth song will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for the iPod, and the opportunity to create a Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store.' Check out the countdown on Apple's front page, and get ready to drop stupid amounts of cash on iTMS over the weekend. I'll see you in the ramen noodle aisle after the count passes 100 million!"
If you think of this like a raffle, there are $0.99 single entries, or multiple entries for $9.99 which are the ablums.
So bring on the iMixes with the most songs for $9.99. I recommend Rush in Rio, a live Rush concert featuring 31 rocking hits from Neal Peart, Geddy Lee, and Alex Lifeson for $17.99, that's only $0.58 per raffle entry and some great live rock to boot!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
The counter on the front page of Apple.com seems stuck at 94,767,325 no matter how much I'm refreshing. A live updater would be more handy ;)
But seriously, much as I dislike the RIAA, its tactics and current copyright arrangements for music and films in general, it's nice to see a company other than Microsoft having some success for a change.
In order to download a track from iTunes you have to purchase it. However, this page states that "No purchase necessary". I'm sure the legal department said they have to throw that in, but how else are you going to win without purchasing anything? Pepsi bottle caps? Gift certificate downloads? The average person is going to have to buy something.
Somehow I'm getting more and more eager to get iTMS here in Finland, too.
Oh, well. It's not like they're giving away free iPods or anything.
No, wait..
After the count reaches the required # of mils, observe the counter value vs. Time (maybe requires some OCR software to get the number from the GIF or whatever Apple used to prevent this type of thing), then try to make a best prediction when 10,000 mark is getting close and dump some cash in.
Might work, huh?
Paul B.
P.S. Even if one does not want to actually risk their $$ on this game, a software to plot the chart would be still interesting to hack together -- by taking a derivative we will see if other people are trying to do this -- if yes, dN/dT should peak around 10,000*x
A couple people over at MacRumors forums have created some simple tracking devices for sales since the counter has gone up. Check out some graphs here and or download this simple app (Windows and Mac OS X in archive).
And most of the 95 million songs have been sold. Apple and Pepsi stated only about five million songs were given away in the Pepsi contest (although there were 100 million chances to win). And that was the biggest promotion that they have had
If I didn't like their stuff so much, I'd be so annoyed that they keep offering such good competitions in the US and leave Australians (and many other places, I'm sure) out to dry.
We'd be happy enough even just to have access to the iTMS - the competition would be nice too, but please at least let us use the store.
It's updated every five minutes. Keep watching. For instance, right now it says:
function count(){ var num = 94790014;return num; }
That's more than 10,000 songs since your comment was posted.
I write in my journal
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=113152&cid=958 7496
;-)
it is 470 songs/minute RIGHT NOW. Wow, not bad at all they are doing!
(See the actual values and posting time)
Paul B.
> So slashdot sinks to reporting company give-away promotions.
On apple.slashdot.org, everything Apple does is news.
I'm not sure why but I found this quite sad. It's as if, to her, the artists and even the music itself has lost any uniqueness or individuality. The songs are just a collection of different products on "my iTunes".
In addition to the store, the term iTunes also refers to the software (very similar to, say, MusicMatch) that runs on your system and functions as a music player.
I'm pretty sure that she didn't mean "I'm listening to music that I have purchased through iTunes". She just meant that she was listening to the iTunes player on her desktop.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
The numbers seem very suspicious: that curve is decidedly linear. You would expect to see some variation, because of (for example) of the time of day. It looks like Apple picked some reasonable songs/minute value.
What happens when the reasonable rate begins to differ from the average real rate? It would probably be a bad idea for them to give out the actual data, which would be useful for competitors.
Anyway, either Apple is going to use the actual data, or they are going to use the fake data. I imagine they will use the fake data, because otherwise the 10^8 mile mark will come on the homepage at the wrong time. If they *do* use the fake data, you could theoretically increase the odds of winning to something like 1 in 2000 by picking the right five minute interval. If you were even smarter, you could time it to the second.
Assuming you're the only one to read this comment, of course. I wonder what the legal implications are?
Protect your liberties. Donate to the ACLU
You gotta love this news. This comes out while Dell has their "trade in your old iPod for $100 off one of our mp3 player" deals. Sony announced their "we have a media player that isn't exactly mp3 but we plan on it killing the iPod" player. Microsoft no doubt wants to have their new device (whenever it comes out) unseat the iPod. It's a war out there, and Apple (who already holds the lead in market share of players) is upping the ante once again and rubbing everyone's nose in the fact they're about to have 100 million download. Wow...just wow. I wonder what the mp3 player and music download site scene will look like a year from now.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Yes!!! All my practice at getting first post on slashdot will finally pay off!
Sorry to disappoint the rest of you, but that 100,000,000th song PowerBook prize is a good as mine!
Oh, and FISRT POST!!!11!!1!!
(losers!)
I don't have an iPod, but I buy stuff from iTMS. Ya know, there's a handy "Burn to CD" feature in iTunes you can use.
Please don't undermine my pessimism with logic! :-)
All you need to do to enter for free is use their "Tell A Friend" feature.
How To Enter. You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by: 1) downloading a song from iTunes (any Free Download Single of the Week will be deemed an ineligible entry); or 2) a free alternative means of sending an email to Apple at itunes100@apple.com via the iTunes "Tell a Friend" feature (a song download or Tell a Friend email will be deemed an "Entry(ies"). The "Tell a Friend" feature can be easily accessed at iTunes by selecting a song, and clicking the "Tell a Friend" link that is displayed for that song. One Entry will be automatically submitted for each song downloaded or Tell a Friend email sent. The Promotion begins following the downloading of the 95,000,000th iTunes song, and ends with the downloading of the 100 millionth Entry ("End Date"). Only Entries submitted in this time period will be accepted.