McDonalds to give away 1 billion iTunes songs

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
All I can say is Holy Crap!







From the New York Post, as reported on MacNN:



November 6, 2003 -- Ronald McDonald is stealing Pepsi's thunder.



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, The Post has learned.



In a dramatic move that gives a thumbs up to the music industry's efforts at creating legal alternatives to file sharing, McDonald's plans to give away up to 1 billion songs in a marketing campaign, according to sources familiar with the matter.



A spokesperson for Apple declined comment, and a representative of McDonald's was unavailable for comment.



Both Pepsi and McDonald's are paying Apple's retail price of 99 cents per song, sources say. And McDonald's has arranged to buy up to a billion songs to meet customer demand.



But because not all customers will take advantage of the offer, McDonald's actual spending on the campaign will probably be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.



The plans by two of the largest consumer goods companies to spend a significant amount of promotional money on music sharing is a validation of Apple's revolutionary iTunes service - and a ringing endorsement for the beleaguered music industry.



It is unclear how McDonalds will use the free downloads in a promotional campaign. Pepsi will place special redeemable codes in the caps of bottles of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist. (Although it will place iTunes wrapping on 300 million bottles, only 100 million will contain the codes.)



The Pepsi iTunes promotion will kick off with a Super Bowl ad on Feb. 1, 2004 and run until March 31.



Pepsi and iTunes made their announcement last month to coincide with the launch of iTunes' service for Windows users. "This historic promotion to legally give away 100 million free songs will go down in history as igniting the legal download market," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the time.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    NY Post = shit





    i'll believe it when i see it.
  • Reply 2 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by applenut

    NY Post = shit





    i'll believe it when i see it.




    hey 'nut, tell us how you really feel...you are always "surpressing" your feelings





    g
  • Reply 3 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by applenut

    NY Post = shit





    i'll believe it when i see it.




    I was thinking the same thing myself. So far, though, no denials or retractions. If it's true, that's a whole lot of smackers for AAPL.
  • Reply 4 of 32
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    [QUOTE]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, The Post has learned.



    In a dramatic move that gives a thumbs up to the music industry's efforts at creating legal alternatives to file sharing, McDonald's plans to give away up to 1 billion songs in a marketing campaign, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    [QUOTE]



    How is this a "much bigger deal"?

    Isn't 100 million the same as one billion?
  • Reply 5 of 32
    That's an American 1 billion, which equals 1,000,000,000. This means it's ten times the size of the Pepsi deal, which is only 100,000,000 songs.



    Man, can't believe I just said "only" 100,000,000 songs.
  • Reply 6 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by gobble gobble

    That's an American 1 billion, which equals 1,000,000,000. This means it's ten times the size of the Pepsi deal, which is only 100,000,000 songs.



    Man, can't believe I just said "only" 100,000,000 songs.




    Perhaps all of the people who rail against McDonalds (in various other threads) will boycott Apple now.
  • Reply 7 of 32
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by gobble gobble

    That's an American 1 billion, which equals 1,000,000,000. This means it's ten times the size of the Pepsi deal, which is only 100,000,000 songs.



    Man, can't believe I just said "only" 100,000,000 songs.




    is 1 billion different internationally?
  • Reply 8 of 32
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    What are you on, satchmo?



    America: A billion = 1,000 million, 10^9

    Britain: A billion = A million million, 10^12



    No one defines a billion as 100 million, not even Canadians. Although I learned that the British call a thousand million (10^9) a "milliard."
  • Reply 9 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by applenut

    is 1 billion different internationally?



    Yes, it is. See the previous post. Thank you Luca.
  • Reply 10 of 32
    Thats awesome. For all my friends who think Apple is going to fail, you guys can kiss my a$$. If this thing goes through, Apple will be huge(r)
  • Reply 11 of 32
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    What are you on, satchmo?



    America: A billion = 1,000 million, 10^9

    Britain: A billion = A million million, 10^12



    No one defines a billion as 100 million, not even Canadians. Although I learned that the British call a thousand million (10^9) a "milliard."




    Heh heh...math never was my strong suit.

    Damn! At 46 billion, that Gates guy really has a sh*tload of money.
  • Reply 12 of 32
    smirclesmircle Posts: 1,035member
    Does anyone know if you have to open an iTMS account to claim the giveaway songs?



    If yes, Apples account numbers will skyrocket
  • Reply 13 of 32
    asenasen Posts: 93member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    What are you on, satchmo?



    America: A billion = 1,000 million, 10^9

    Britain: A billion = A million million, 10^12



    No one defines a billion as 100 million, not even Canadians. Although I learned that the British call a thousand million (10^9) a "milliard."




    Luca is correct in that the traditional, old-skool, UK definition is 10^12. However, in recent years 10^9 has been used for 1 billion. To avoid transatlantic confusion, I think the UK government adopted the US definition about 15 years ago when talking about financial matters. Since then the majority of people have done the same, and mean 10^9 when they say 1 billion.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by åsen

    Luca is correct in that the traditional, old-skool, UK definition is 10^12. However, in recent years 10^9 has been used for 1 billion. To avoid transatlantic confusion, I think the UK government adopted the US definition about 15 years ago when talking about financial matters. Since then the majority of people have done the same, and mean 10^9 when they say 1 billion.



    As a Brit, I can confirm that we've used 10^9 for nearly my entire adult life - which for the record is 23 years, and certainly since the deregulation of the financial services industry and foreign exchange.
  • Reply 15 of 32
    A statement by McD's indicates that the deal may not be true:



    Quote:

    McDonald's said in a statement that it continues to pursue initiatives in music, sports, fashion and entertainment in conjunction with its recently introduced "I'm Lovin' It" global advertising campaign.



    "However, as it relates to recent news reports, there are no agreements to announce, so anything else is pure speculation," McDonald's said in a statement.



    The full article. They didn't deny it, but they haven't confirmed it, either. Leave it to the Post to print this as news.
  • Reply 16 of 32
    bka77bka77 Posts: 331member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mark- Card Carrying FanaticRealist

    As a Brit, I can confirm that we've used 10^9 for nearly my entire adult life - which for the record is 23 years, and certainly since the deregulation of the financial services industry and foreign exchange.



    In germany and austria it's 10^12
  • Reply 17 of 32
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    McDonalds is trying to kill the rumor with a technicality. They say there's no agreement, they don't say they're not in negotiations for one.
  • Reply 18 of 32
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    Too bad I don't eat McDonald's. Looks like I'll be getting my free music from Pepsi.
  • Reply 19 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Akumulator

    Too bad I don't eat McDonald's. Looks like I'll be getting my free music from Pepsi.



    You realize that they have to allow you to get these prizes without buying a product from them, right? When the deal is announced, there will be some fine print telling you where you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to to get prize pieces. Just like with their monopoly promotion now. It's US law or something.
  • Reply 20 of 32
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by pensieve

    You realize that they have to allow you to get these prizes without buying a product from them, right? When the deal is announced, there will be some fine print telling you where you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to to get prize pieces. Just like with their monopoly promotion now. It's US law or something.



    Often no purchase is required at McDonalds. As in the case with those Monopoly stamps that people were collecting...I can't see them charging if they're giving away that many songs.
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