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1 Billion iTunes Contest

pvt_medic writes "Apple has announced their newest contest for the 1 Billionth iTunes song downloaded. Every 100,000 downloads someone will win an iPod nano and a $100 giftcard, with the grand prize being an iMac, 10 iPod (60GB), and $10,000 credit at iTunes. Looks like business is going well for Apple."

16 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. 10 iPods? by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm curious, what does one do with ten 60GB iPods? It seems that you keep one for yourself and sell the other 9 on eBay. Maybe give some to your friends? Maybe give an iPod to your senator?

    It just seems like ten iPods is a lot for one person and will just end up being given away.

  2. Entry open to... by kahanamoku · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

    However, if your zip code isn't 5 digits long, you probably wont receive the prize!

    C'mon Apple, how US-Centric are you?...

    --
    ----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
    1. Re:Entry open to... by kahanamoku · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.apple.com/itunes/1billion/entryform/

      The MZFinance.MZAlternateEntryForm.Zip field must be at least 5 characters.

      --
      ----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
  3. free entries by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 4, Informative
    The best part is for those who don't buy into these contests is that you can use the free downloads for entry.

    Um, no. From the Official Rules:
    How To Enter. You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by: 1) downloading a song from iTunes (any music video or other video downloads and any free downloads will be deemed an ineligible entry); or 2) a free alternative means of entry by completing an online entry form available at http://www.apple.com/itunes/1billion/entryform/ (a song download or free online entry will be deemed an "Entry(ies)").
  4. Prizes every 3 hours by evw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you believe the meter running on the above web page, it ran through 1000 songs in 112 seconds. At that rate they give out the 100,000 song prize every 3 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds. However that also means they're 61.425 days away from giving away the grand prize.

    1. Re:Prizes every 3 hours by jcr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you believe the meter running on the above web page, it ran through 1000 songs in 112 seconds.

      That's about right.

      BTW, I spoke with the programmer who implemented that counter. It phones home to adjust its tick rate, so it's pretty close to the actual running count, barring massive network latency.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Re:May I Be The First To Say.. by catch23 · · Score: 5, Funny

    A 600GB raid-0 array!

  6. Dear Winner: by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good luck with your taxes in 2007.

    We'll be watching.

    The IRS

  7. Re:May I Be The First To Say.. by jcr · · Score: 4, Funny

    What would one person want with ten 60 gig iPods?

    Some people have ten friends or relatives they could give them to.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  8. Sign of the times by The-Bus · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can tell that iTunes is being embraced by everyone when the top-selling songs are "Grillz" by Nelly, "Shake That" by Eminem and "L.O.V.E." by Ashlee Simpson.

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  9. Entry form is not accessible by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The entry form uses a visual CAPTCHA, which is not accessible to users with visual impairment such as, say, many iPod Shuffle owners. In jurisdictions with anti-discrimination statutes, this could be considered discrimination or even violate gambling laws because for blind people, a purchase is necessary. Given that the iPod player is an audio device, wouldn't it make sense to include an audio-based alternate confirmation method?

  10. Re:May I Be The First To Say.. by afaik_ianal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some people have ten friends...

    On Slashdot?!? You must be new here.

  11. Little-known exception by Carpe+PM · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the billionth song is a Michael Bolton tune they are skipped and the winner will be the next one.

  12. Re:The Trade-offs by softspokenrevolution · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's right, because every $.99 is pure profit for apple

  13. I mean, no mention of the scholarship? by l3prador · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't believe OP missed (IMO) the coolest part of the grand prize...

    Apple will create a full-ride scholarship in your name to a world-renowned music school.

    Classy.

  14. Re:The Trade-offs by humajime · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lets not forget the fact that it costs them 9 out of the 15 cents they make to pay for the storage of the songs and the bandwidth to send you the songs. Oh yeah, and lets also not forget everyone they have to pay to make this server work (coders, network engineers, PR people, customer service). They make something like 2-3% on songs. On a .99 cent song, thats 2 pennies.