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Media (Apple) Media

Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs 383

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thats-a-fun-idea dept.
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."
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Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs More

Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs

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  • Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:21PM (#8151427)
    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?

    • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mrseigen ( 518390 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:25PM (#8151460) Homepage Journal
      If I were a betting man, I'd put money on the fact that 90% of idiots will go "Hmm, there's this Eye-Tunes thing in my Pepsi... oh well" and toss it. I'd bet that probably very few people will cash in their codes, and even fewer will give them away to this site or even know it exists.

      Personally, I'm in Canada, so I don't really care (iTMS isn't over here because of the Canadian music industry being a pain).

      • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:55PM (#8151671) Homepage Journal
        I have to say that I'm glad the nearby college campus is a Pepsi campus. Back when Pepsi was doing its PepsiStuff/DewStuff promotion, I regularly patrolled the buildings on campus, fishing Pepsi and Dew bottles out of the trash and taking the caps...as most people who drink the things will keep the cap with the bottle and then screw it back on to throw it away.

        You may laugh at me for trash-can diving...but I ended up getting a nice backpack, a mini-Mag lite, a DVD of Jackie Chan's Gorgeous...and, for 255 bottlecaps, a 16 meg RIO mp3 player. That's a lot of stuff.

        Too bad they didn't give away a Harrier jumpjet [slashdot.org].

        • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Funny)

          by CausticWindow ( 632215 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:37PM (#8152007)

          Pepsi campus? As opposed to a Coke campus?

          You Americans are truly weird.

          • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:4, Informative)

            by frostman ( 302143 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @06:23PM (#8153773) Homepage Journal
            Parent post is rightly modded Funny, but in case anyone doesn't get the joke:

            Yes, in the US at least most college campuses are either "Pepsi" or "Coke" campuses, in that either the university or some other company has a monopoly on soda pop sales on university property, and both Pepsi and Coke require exclusivity if you want any of the goodies they give out.

            And those goodies can be pretty nice. Sometimes just plain old cash. Sometimes they pay for advertising for your business as long as it has a Pepsi|Coke logo on it. Lots of other stuff.

    • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:27PM (#8151471) Homepage
      It's very likely that those that don't have any interest in the iTMS codes or how they can get free music, don't have any interest in this project either. My guess is they'll still ignore it, and if someone else tries to gather up codes locally they're more likely to use it to get a nice collection rather than donate it to this project anyway.

      So while it's a nice thing, I hardly think it'll have a significant impact on the number of caps claimed.

      Kjella
      • On one level, this is a silly promotion, since it doesn't make a lot of sense for people to send them their bottle caps so they can buy music. Why not just use the suggestions on their web site to buy whatever music you want to support yourself?

        And if you think of it, this promotion really IS a brilliant way to highlight labels owned by their friends and acts that they like.

        On that level, it's really a very nice job, and I'm sure it will help sales of "their" music.

        D

    • Re:Killing the golden goose? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MisterFancypants ( 615129 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:39PM (#8151560)
      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?

      There's no way this project will even cause a blip on the radar. In fact, I'd be really surprised if they got many submissions at all. Generally, the people who do not participate in the contest will either be those who threw the cap away without even looking at it, or people who are not net-savvy enough to be 'hip' to iTunes and anyone who falls into that category certainly isn't going to know about this project.

      Neat idea, I suppose, but ultimately unpractical.

    • 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.

      • Whoa, I answered my own question. (Score:5, Informative)

        by ScottGant ( 642590 ) <scott_gant@sbcgloba l . n etNOT> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:58PM (#8151694) Homepage
        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.

    • If this kind of site encurages more returns than antisipated, might this prevent there from being a repeat of this promotion in the future?

      Why would it? Pepsi (with Apple's cooperation) is the one running the contest, not any of the music labels. The music labels (both the "Big Five" and the indies) care which songs consumers choose to download, but there's no reason for Pepsi to do so (well, unless you make the stretch of saying they hope to groom more corporate teen pop a la Britney for use in their f

      • I think the premise of the question was that:

        - Pepsi pays full price for each song;
        - Pepsi expects x% of the caps to be redeemed, and has budgeted for the promotion accordingly;
        - This site could cause 2x% or 3x% to be redeemed instead, thus
        - Pepsi and other companies might think twice about running such a promotion in the future, because it costs a lot to do so.

        However, as others have pointed out, if only a small percentage of Pepsi drinkers are either (a) current iTunes users or (b) likely to sign up ju
    • might this prevent there from being a repeat of this promotion in the future?

      Which is exactly what these jerks want. The Downhill Battle people are CHRONICALLY anti-pop. They hate everything about the industry, and want bands to start getting more profits RIGHT NOW. And for some reason, they're taking Apple to task for choosing to support the major labels (who have money, visibility and songs people actually want to buy) instead of the current nobodys yearning to be heard.

      The internet, with its stream

  • how long (Score:5, Interesting)

    by everyplace ( 527571 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:21PM (#8151431) Homepage
    How long before extra itunes codes wind up on ebay in lots? Will that be an appropriate thing to sell?

    • Re:how long (Score:5, Informative)

      by cliffy2000 ( 185461 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:24PM (#8151453) Journal
      No. Generally, game pieces have a clause in their contract that they cannot be resold individually. Furthermore, they technically have a cash value of 1/20 cents (read the fine print). IANAL, but IAARSP (I am a relatively smart person).

      • Re:how long (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jdcook ( 96434 )
        "Furthermore, they technically have a cash value of 1/20 cents (read the fine print). IANAL, but IAARSP (I am a relatively smart person)."

        Many coupons specify a "cash redemption value" of 1/20 or 1/100 cent. But a thing is still worth what it will bring. Think about it. If this weren't true, why would anyone pay a premium for a 1943 copper penny which technically has a cash value of 1 cent? You may be a relatively smart person but you are nonetheless wrong.

      • Yeah but neither eBay nor Pepsi would probably enforce that clause very well. McDonald's monopoly pieces were being sold like crazy on eBay just a few months ago (yes that is sad).

      • Re:how long (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Octagon Most ( 522688 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:47PM (#8152099)
        "... they technically have a cash value of 1/20 cents ..."

        True. On paper coupons where you see that printed it refers specifically to the redemption value honored by the issuer. In other words you could not turn in x number of "$1.00 off" coupons to the manufacturer and redeem them for x dollars. Absent that legalese you probably could make the case for forcing them to give you that cash value in actual cash. At least that's probably why the "cash value" statement appears.

        Now, as others are saying, something is worth what people are willing to pay. That $1.00 off coupon that you are not going to use has no material value to you but is worth some amount up to $1.00 to me if I am going to buy the promoted item. I could give you $0.50 and we'd both be getting something. The same would apply to these winning caps provided there is not some legal barrier to selling them. Certainly there is in some areas and you would invite trouble with a mass sale in the open on eBay. But a private, or much less public, sale between individuals would not invite scrutiny. Anyway, Pepsi and Apple both win if you drink enough to get to the point where you are contemplating what to do with your winnings.

    • Re:how long (Score:2, Funny)

      by sameyeam ( 587571 )
      Will that be an appropriate thing to sell?

      Since when did "appropriate" matter on eBay? :-)

    • Re:how long (Score:3, Interesting)

      by xWeston ( 577162 )
      How long before a keygen is out?
    • Q: How many codes can I enter?
      A: You can enter up to ten unique codes per day, not to exceed 200 unique codes over the duration of the Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion.

      Personally, I am thinking about sending in 200 SASE's worth .72 for mine... it might take longer, but its not a 1 in 3 chance, when purchasing a 1.50 drink.

  • Pepsi, Cola war again (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Odd this happens just after Coke makes its music store in the UK
  • I don't think this campaign of theirs will work out. If only %10-%20 percent of people are going to redeem their caps on iTunes, even less are going to go through the hassle of mailing bottlecaps to someone. I bet they'll get maybe 1000 caps.

    As for me, im going to the store to see if they started the iTunes promotion, and if they have, I will be buying a few cases of Pepsi.

  • Who runs this thing? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:24PM (#8151446)
    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?

    • Did you load the page? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:30PM (#8151486) Homepage
      " 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 [downhillbattle.org], 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!
    • Downhill Battle [downhillbattle.org] runs this thing. They are a non-profit music activism group dedicated to returning diversity to mainstream music [downhillbattle.org]. They are two very idealistic non-artists who definitely are not trying to boost their own sales. Hopefully they will choose well whom they support and publicly document their reasoning. Incidentally, they need help with the backend for the Recycler, so please contact them if you think you can help (and you are inclined to help them, of course).

  • Mountain Dew? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Schnapple ( 262314 ) <tomkiddNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:24PM (#8151447) Homepage
    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?

    • Re:Mountain Dew? (Score:3, Informative)

      by jpmkm ( 160526 )
      And by wither I assume you mean whither, which means 'to where', as in "Whither are we going". To where mountain dew? I don't think so.

  • Honest indies (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 1000101 ( 584896 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:25PM (#8151457)
    "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.

    • Re:Honest indies (Score:2, Informative)

      by skyfaller ( 624053 ) *
      That's true, that's why they qualified "independent labels" with the adjective "honest". Presumably they will only use the codes on HONEST indie labels, and hopefully they will have done enough research that they can say with confidence that the labels they support are "non-evil".
    • i think they mean honest as in magnatune [magnatune.com].

      from their site:

      We're a record label. But we're not evil.

      We call it "try before you buy."
      It's the shareware model applied to music.

      Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations.
      If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use.
      Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep the rights to their music.
      F

  • well, not without some sort of gimmick. not that i'm against small bands actually getting a share of the spoils here, but aren't they the type of artists that should be supported in the first place?

  • Don't feel bad for the poor guitar player... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gb506 ( 738638 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:31PM (#8151497) Homepage
    I wish I had the type of nimble, strong, and boisterous advocacy for my art that independent musicians seem to have. The darn Pepsi deal hasn't even officially started yet and they're already trying to maximize profit.

    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.

    • You can get paid for it...you just have to be really, really good. I know an extremely good portrait painter who commands $25,000 for a portrait. Not too shabby.
      • You don't really have to be good. I know a lot of really, really good artists who barely eke out a living. The best art I've ever seen was produced by a woman who never made much of anything on her art. She was able to successfully barter it (trading art to the vet, etc.). Now she's making her living by teaching glass blowing. It lets her survive while creating more art.

        On the other hand, there's my ex-wife. She has a pretty lucrative side-business creating commisioned art. She is, at best, a medioc
    • But a painter,

      Funny, but that's all I see in trade shows / street festivals etc in a huge (several hundred mile) radius of where I live. And so far, I have not seen one decent painting. Sure, they all paint good (well, most of them do), but they don't seem to paint good subjects. Every friggin' person has to paint a barn or house covered in snow with some birds around it.
      </rant>

      Now, a sculptor I could see as being poor. I never see them. Except ice sculptors, and they have plenty of business i
    • I'm still waiting for a GarageBand for writers. That's something I'd really like to see.

      -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]

  • Where are the files going? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:33PM (#8151514)
    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?

    • Re:Where are the files going? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RalphBNumbers ( 655475 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:57PM (#8151690)
      Damn right!

      I'm all for musicians getting a decent cut of the profit their music generates, but this doesn't do that at all.

      This gives big chunks of money to a few specific bands chosen by downhillbattle, and gives the consumer no music in return.

      Hell, this actually discurages perople from listening to these indie bands' music, by taking a potential listener's free song and essentially throwing it away. That sounds alot more like what a corporate money grubing weasel would do than an honest musician who actually wants to be heard.
      • Since I use Linux I can't use iTunes, so a winning bottlecap would be of no use to me. I don't really drink Pepsi much, but if I happened to get a bottlecap I might consider sending it to them since I wouldn't be able to use it myself.

        Since I actually listen primarily to independent music I prefer the eMusic store, which thankfully runs on Linux. So, I'll keep on supporting independent bands with the music I buy through other means, and maybe give them a little extra support that I wouldn't have otherwis
    • Because most of the people don't know how or don't want to install iTMS. It's much easier to send the code by mail to someone else and forget everything about it.
    • That would effectively promote iTunes, by making more people download and use the service in order to hear the song. If you read the site, you will see they are not too fond of iTunes.

      Maybe a better solution (though more technically/legally challenging) would be for them to buy/download the song for you, and then make it available to (only) you for download from their site.

  • this is interesting (Score:3, Insightful)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaaNO@SPAMSPAM.yahoo.com> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:34PM (#8151518) Journal
    and i dont mean the site asking for caps. The interesting bit it that this will be announced in a big commercial during the superbowl later today that will proclaim that you can legally download free music. i get the impression that this will appeal to alot of people. i hope that it is a huge success .. i know iwill buy pepsi instead of coke simple becasue of the offer :) .. i think thw best thing to do is get a song and give to 2 friends as well that way you have 1/3 odds and 3 people :)
  • See, when I first heard about this, I assumed that it was going to be a specific number of free songs. Like 3-5 predetermined songs that Pepsi has been asked to promote by the record companies...

    Maybe that's not the case, which makes the whole proposition seem a little crazy. This could massively increase the iTunes userbase, but it could also just be a huge drain on bandwidth.
    • What Pepsi is effectively giving away is 99 cent gift certificates to iTunes Music Store... which can be used to download any song on the service. Reportedly, Pepsi will be paying Apple the full 99 cents for every code that gets turned in...
      • Which let's us assume they are making at least 33 cents on each bottle they are selling since the reported odds are 1 in 3.

        I wonder who approached who in this promotion. How weird.
        • Not even, Pepsi can print 100 million codes and safely assume that only 20% are going to actually be turned in... therefore Pepsi hands a $20 million check to Apple and it's all settled.

          $20-30 million isn't out of line for a soft drink promotion... remember the "Play For a Billion" game that Pepsi ran last summer, and will likely repeat this year. This contest just gives out a lot of little prizes instead of having any big ones.

          • Therefore Pepsi hands a $20 million check to Apple and it's all settled.

            I'm guessing that his is not how it works (though I could be wrong and you could be right ;-). My understanding on how these promotions go, is that pepsi actually pays some insurance company (or, more-likely, a company that specializes in promotion coverage, like this one [scapromotions.com].) a straight fee (like the $20 million you mentioned), Pepsi probably says "hey, wouldn't it be cool if we gave away 100 millions songs for free off of itunes?", t

  • Accountabilty? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by geekboy_x ( 410674 ) <geekboy@netcom.ca> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:38PM (#8151554) Homepage
    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.)

  • bad approach (Score:5, Interesting)

    by larry bagina ( 561269 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:39PM (#8151558) Journal
    They're advocating sending in unused coupons so they can buy multiple copies of music from indie artists. If you don't want to install iTunes, that's an ok proxy, I guess, and better than just throwing them out.

    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.

    • No good (Score:4, Insightful)

      by skyfaller ( 624053 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:49PM (#8151632) Homepage
      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 [downhillbattle.org].

  • Official Rules (Score:5, Interesting)

    by crumbz ( 41803 ) <[moc.liamg>maps ... uj>maps_evomer> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:43PM (#8151590) Homepage
    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?

  • code?? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by lastninja ( 237588 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:45PM (#8151602)
    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.

  • Buy your own indie music (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NiKnight3 ( 532580 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:49PM (#8151634) Homepage
    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.
  • This sounds an awful lot like that old skit from In Living Color, "The you-can-make-me-rich!" blank cassette tape limited time offer.

  • There may be something the people didn't expect... (Score:3, Redundant)

    by Dr Reducto ( 665121 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @01:56PM (#8151683) Journal
    According to the rules of the program:

    "Q: How many codes can I enter?
    A: You can enter up to ten unique codes per day, not to exceed 200 unique codes over the duration of the Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion."

    These people may encounter a problem with this rule.

  • C'mon, why trust these guys? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    At the very beginning they claim the service and the software will cost you more than the Pepsi proving they're either ignorant or dishonest. Then all the way through the article they make it obvious that for whatever reason they have a corn cob up their rear ends about iTunes.

    If you want to support independents, then fer cryin' out loud, go out and buy their CDs, records, tapes, and online music. And especially support local live music---you won't regret it. Don't turn to these really strange self appo

  • The problem (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cascino ( 454769 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:00PM (#8151711) Homepage
    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?

  • Coca Cola (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gax ( 196168 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:06PM (#8151750)
    >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.

  • Easier Solution? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fidget42 ( 538823 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:06PM (#8151757)
    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...

  • Why do I feel this is a scam (Score:5, Informative)

    by digitalgimpus ( 468277 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:16PM (#8151827) Homepage
    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.

    • Re:Why do I feel this is a scam (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      People who endorse and encourage illegal activities normally aren't very reputable

      [...]

      Sorry, I just don't believe criminals.

      I see the normally caveat but heres some reading for you. (Can't let these fascism supporting slashdotters get away with saying crap like that.)

      1 [wikipedia.org]

      2 [wikipedia.org]

      3 [wikipedia.org]

      4 [wikipedia.org]

      5 [wikipedia.org]


  • If the idea is to negative the whole iTunes/Pepsi thing, then the call to action should be about a protest to _not_ cash back any tunes. This way, both Pepsi and iTunes find it to be a failed advertising exercise and it can only help the competition of other services.

  • Pepsi isn't going to be happy. (Score:3, Informative)

    by CaptCanuk ( 245649 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:35PM (#8151990) Journal
    In the long run, I think Pepsi probably assumed that 20% at least of these winning bottle caps would be thrown out and as such they would have to pay less in the long run. They probably have a sweet deal with Apple pushing around $0.20 a song so would have been $20 million dollars at full value. 20% savings on that ($4mill) would have been worth it considering the advertising value is the same regardless of the number of redemptions.

  • Driving me friggin' NUTS (Score:5, Informative)

    by The I Shing ( 700142 ) * on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:52PM (#8152133) Journal


    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.

    • 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.

      So, in essence, the RIAA itself is providing a strong incentive to share indie music? That's pretty cool of them.
    • AFAIK, in absolutely not one single solitary incident has the RIAA sued anyone for downloading music files.

      I thought the same thing when they first started filing lawsuits... It would be stupid for them to go after downloaders wouldn't it?

      However, after reading a few stories, I found out that at least a handful of people being sued were ONLY DOWNLOADING music, not sharing it...

      So, either you're wrong, or numerous news reports are wrong.

  • Ploy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dduardo ( 592868 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @02:57PM (#8152176)
    1) Request Pespi Codes from Internet Users
    2) Use statically analysis
    3) Write script to generate codes
    4) Download songs for free from iTunes

    -----------
  • time to stop staring at the monitor.

    Go find a live human to give your free itunes vouchers.

  • Another way to help independent musicians (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tobes ( 302057 ) <(tobypadilla) (at) (gmail.com)> on Sunday February 01, 2004 @03:47PM (#8152567) Homepage
    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.

  • Bad news for Pepsi (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Sunday February 01, 2004 @04:40PM (#8152915)
    With any kind of promotion like this, they are expecting only a certain percentage of people to actually bother to redeem the botttle caps - if 10% redeem them, they only have to pay royalties for 10% of the songs in the give away. Now, more bottle caps will be redeemed then they counted on - this could end up being a very high price tag for Pepsi!

  • Tune Recycler's cynical campaign... (Score:3, Informative)

    by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [orpxnyl]> on Monday February 02, 2004 @04:05AM (#8156675)

    First off, I find this whole Pepsi promotion to be ridiculous; almost as ridiculous as Pepsi's "Billion Dollar Giveaway" from last year. Pepsi believes they only will have 10 to 20 million songs redeemed. Then if you read the rules, a single user is limited legally to 200 downloads, and only 10 can be registered per day. Pepsi's limitations are designed to reduce the amount of songs redeemed. Then you have the fact that Joe Blow has to already have iTunes installed on their computer or download it. If you'll notice at the locations that sell Pepsi, you won't find any CD's that you can pick up that has iTunes already loaded, unlike say if AOL ran the promotion.

    Next, you have the Tune Recycler campaign. They want people to "recyle" those iTunes caps. Great idea. I myself wanted to do such a thing online before I read about the 200 download cap on the Rules page this morning. So this group will not be able to download en masse, otherwise Pepsi will cut them off. That means they'll parcel the collected entries between various members of their group. They might claim altruistic reasons, but the simple matter-of-fact is that the downloaded files will be on someone's hard drive and therefore it becomes their "property" even under the DRM limitations. So which songs will these people download?

    If Tune Recyler was really serious about their campaign, they'd ask that you input your email address for each of the bottle cap numbers you donate to them, and then put it to a vote of their users as to which songs from which artists they should purchase as well as the volume, all based upon voting. But they don't do that now, do they? Sorry, that's not appealing to me.

    The Tune Recycler group then goes on about how bad the iTunes Music Store is since it works with the RIAA. Fine. But they also fail to realize that if iTunes becomes really successful, that will tempt bands to dump their labels and deal directly with Apple, cutting out the middle-man. That will be the end of pre-recorded CDs being sold in retail channels. And I expect that the first major band to do such a thing will be Duran Duran with their much publicized reunion album almost complete and the band yet to re-sign with any of the RIAA labels yet. (And no, I'm not counting Annie DeFranco in this equation either) The simple fact is Tune Recycler cannot see what is plainly in sight on the near horizon with their protest mentality.

    And yes, you can only play those AAC files on an iPod. How monopolistic of Apple, I'm sure the Tune Recycler folk will say. But of course with Apple's rather lightweight DRM implementation, you can take those AAC files, burn them in CD format, and then turn them into MP3s or OGGs or whatever else you want. The only other commercial choices support Microsoft's tin-can-sounding WMA format, which is NOT a standard no matter how much money Microsoft throws into PR to claim that it is. So if Tune Recycler wishes to view the world in good and evil terms, you have Apple on one end and Microsoft on the other. Which will you choose?

    I'd like to end this posting with stating that I want to see our online community really stick it to Pepsi and claim as many of these bottle caps as possible. We have until March 31st to claim the downloads, so let's get to work.

    p.s. The Lynxpro does not work for the RIAA, Apple, or PepsiCo. He actually favours Coke and thinks CokeMusic.com is pretty slick although he abhors their embrace of WMA...

    p.p.s. The Lynxpro also thinks Tune Recyler is naive in thinking Pepsi is actually paying Apple 99 cents for each claimed download. In all probability, Pepsi is paying the fee sans the percentage of the cost Apple has built-in to pay the credit card companies for the micropayments. Apple might also be waiving their profit markup as well, so in all actuality, Pepsi is probably paying less than 88 cents per redeemed download...

  • Get your free cap from Pepsi... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation AT gmail DOT com> on Monday February 02, 2004 @11:19AM (#8158650) Journal
    From the Official Rules [apple.com]:

    No Purchase Necessary. To receive one free game piece and a copy of Official Rules, while supplies last, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope postmarked on or before 3/31/04 to: Pepsi iTunes Game Piece, P.O. Box 9205, Young America, MN 55558-9205. Residents of the state of VT may omit return postage. Limit one free game piece per request per stamped outer envelope.

    So Vermont residents, for the cost of two envelopes, you can get a game piece which has a 1/3 chance of winning. It doesn't look as if there's a limit to the number of times you can mail in for your free game piece either, as long as each request is in a separate envelope.

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