Pepsi to Team Up with Amazon for Superbowl MP3 Giveaway?

MacRumors · Nov 30, 2007, 05:16 PM

Pepsi and Amazon are negotiating a deal to give away up to 1 billion songs during a music-giveaway promotion that will launch during the 2008 Superbowl on February 3rd, according to Billboard Magazine. The deal is reminiscent of the early iTunes-Pepsi promotional giveaways that were launched at the 2004 and 2005 Superbowls.

In the upcoming promotion, however, Amazon will replace Apple as the music distributor, providing MP3s from their DRM-free Music Store which launched as an early Beta in September. Amazon's DRM-free store works on Macs and integrates remarkably well with iTunes.

The negotiations also serve as a push for several labels to join the DRM-free movement, since the promotion is sure to attract a large number of customers. Wal-Mart is also forcing the issue by alerting Warner Music Group and Sony BMG that they will pull all Windows Media Audio (DRM) format music from their site by January if the labels have not yet provided their music in MP3 format.

At present, the labels offering DRM-free music are fragmented across stores. EMI was first to announce the launch of DRM-free music in iTunes, while Universal is offering DRM free music to everyone but iTunes.

Article Link

confucious626 · Nov 30, 2007, 05:22 PM

This is going to be interesting.

Nicolasdec · Nov 30, 2007, 05:24 PM

How dose this have anything to do with macs????

lozanoj83 · Nov 30, 2007, 05:25 PM

No iTunes? noooo... But it'll be interesting how it turns out in the end.

nagromme · Nov 30, 2007, 05:28 PM

1 billion DRM-free songs, iPod-ready and integrated nicely with iTunes (which Amazon's downloader is)? Sounds good to me!

MrLubeMan · Nov 30, 2007, 05:40 PM

The record Cos. wouldn't listen to their customers. Now they whine about how bad the CD business is. Give customers quality, convenience, ease of use and they will spend money.

Their business is changing and they have missed the bus. Now The market will dictate how they will have to do business. Tough crap. That is business. It is never static.
Good luck Execs.

cal6n · Nov 30, 2007, 05:50 PM

Excellent!

Let the price wars begin...

Eduardo1971 · Nov 30, 2007, 05:57 PM

I've dowloaded several albums from Amozon's site and I too, am surprized how well Amazon's service works with iTunes. They have found a convert in me.

Warbrain · Nov 30, 2007, 05:59 PM

Why is this being voted down? This is great news regardless! No DRM!

cal6n · Nov 30, 2007, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warbrain

Why is this being voted down? This is great news regardless! No DRM!

I smell fanbois..

In other news, it's for yanks only.

vga4life · Nov 30, 2007, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warbrain

Why is this being voted down?

Fanbois. You can lead 'em to good news but you can't make 'em think.

Quote:

This is great news regardless! No DRM!

Yep.

timothyjay2004 · Nov 30, 2007, 06:12 PM

I think it's getting voted down because everyone is getting tired of the music industry's crap. I for one am. I love iTunes. It made me go from downloading music illegally to downloading songs for 99 cents a pop. The music industry hates the fact that now CDs are not being sold as well because people only want the songs that are good, not the other filler crap often included on compact disks. Before iTunes, I looked into other digital download services, such as music match, and never found the same quality. If the record companies want to abandon iTunes, fine, I'll go back to the old way of doing things.. It's a hell of a lot cheaper for me, considering I have legally purchased 1,064 songs since iTunes 4 debuted with the store.

As far as Amazon teaming up with Pepsi, I think it is good and bad at the same time. I honestly wish that Apple would bring back the Pepsi + iTunes deal that they had in 04 and 05. I drink pepsi, and I use iTunes, so it worked out well when I was on the road to pretty much get a 2 for 1. DRM free doesn't make much of a difference to me. If I want to make iTunes music DRM free, I'll just burn and reimport.. tada DRM free. I'm also not a fan of the MP3 format. MP4 (P or A), to me at least, sounds better. It's good that free songs are being given away and DRM free, for those that it matters to. But it stinks that iTunes isn't participating in it anymore...

And that's my rant

pavelbure · Nov 30, 2007, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolasdec

How dose this have anything to do with macs????

anymore this site posts nothing but non mac news on the front page. i know it's slow this time of year, but damn, this does not even have anything to do with apple.

slffl · Nov 30, 2007, 06:29 PM

So you get to choose from a bunch of EMI songs? Sounds lame. I wonder if more record labels plan on going DRM-free before the Superbowl?

megfilmworks · Nov 30, 2007, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pavelbure

anymore this site posts nothing but non mac news on the front page. i know it's slow this time of year, but damn, this does not even have anything to do with apple.

This is very relevant to mac users, ipod and iphone users. Non DRM was driven by Apple.

Howmanoid · Nov 30, 2007, 06:45 PM

AAPL's been there, done that. You can't just do the same promo over and over again. Get's lame real quick.

Wonder what the CEO of Universal thinks about giving away 1B songs without ever seeing a penny for them??? Makes his belly aching about iTunes revenue sharing seem a little pointless.

DeadEye686 · Nov 30, 2007, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slffl

So you get to choose from a bunch of EMI songs? Sounds lame. I wonder if more record labels plan on going DRM-free before the Superbowl?

Universal has been signed with Amazon MP3 from the start, as well as tons of indies. Amazon MP3 has much better coverage than iTunes Plus.

DeadEye686 · Nov 30, 2007, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howmanoid

AAPL's been there, done that. You can't just do the same promo over and over again. Get's lame real quick.

Wonder what the CEO of Universal thinks about giving away 1B songs without ever seeing a penny for them??? Makes his belly aching about iTunes revenue sharing seem a little pointless.

I assure you he's getting more than a penny for them. And yes, you can do the same promo over and over again if it successfully promotes your products — why on earth wouldn't you be able to?

nostaws · Nov 30, 2007, 06:49 PM

I think this is bad news for apple (the pepsi amazon deal), but good news for consumers as a whole. This is great. I want to buy music anywhere and play it on anything (I am an ipod user). I might even buy more music.

slffl · Nov 30, 2007, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadEye686

Universal has been signed with Amazon MP3 from the start, as well as tons of indies. Amazon MP3 has much better coverage than iTunes Plus.

I thought Apple was advertising that iTunes had the largest selection of DRM-free music?

Apocalypse · Nov 30, 2007, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothyjay2004

I think it's getting voted down because everyone is getting tired of the music industry's crap. I for one am. I love iTunes. It made me go from downloading music illegally to downloading songs for 99 cents a pop.

I agree.. The music labels are pissed off that they lost control to Apple, but the reason it happened is that they were too dumb to create this kind of system themselves (and even if they did it would probably be overpriced and crappy anyway). Now we have Universal trying to artificially create their own system that users won't want to use (mac rumors post). They'll basically continue to alienate users by pulling this kind of crap and then cracking down on illegal file sharing. They're not just shooting themselves in the foot, they're very likely killing their own future viability. Big name artists are already starting to release self-published records, and eventually music labels may become obsolete completely. The crap that they're pulling will only speed their demise.

On a slightly unrelated note, I feel the same way about NBC pulling its content from iTunes. More greedy corporate crap. What I like about Apple is that they try to provide real value to users instead of just trying to milk them as much as they can.

mandoman · Nov 30, 2007, 06:52 PM

It's getting voted down because it's pepsi instead of coke,
nothing to do with itunes vs. amazon!

Eww, Pepsi, who drinks that crap?

Kidding aside, I am glad to see the push for DRM free music.
Bigger news was the tidbit about Walmart coercing
the labels to offer DRM free music.

Coca-Cola and iTunes!

edoates · Nov 30, 2007, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mandoman

It's getting voted down because it's pepsi instead of coke,
nothing to do with itunes vs. amazon!

Eww, Pepsi, who drinks that crap?

Kidding aside, I am glad to see the push for DRM free music.
Bigger news was the tidbit about Walmart coercing
the labels to offer DRM free music.

Coca-Cola and iTunes!

I'm all in favor of DRM free music, but as an audiophile of sorts, I despise MP3 in all of its variants. MP4 (AAC) is clearly superior at any given bit rate, and at Apple iTunes DRM-free data rate (256KB), it is almost (but not quite) AIFF in quality.

Admittedly, listening to music on most cheesy earbuds does little to expose fidelity flaws, but since it appears that we are headed to a downloaded music (and video) world with CD's and even DVD discs disappearing, we should be pushing for the highest quality format we can get. And MP3 ain't it!

Eddie O

japanime · Nov 30, 2007, 07:12 PM

iTunes and Coca-Cola ran a similar campaign this past summer in Japan.

I bought 30 bottles of Coke and won a grand total of 3 iTunes download codes.

SciTeach · Nov 30, 2007, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothyjay2004

And that's my rant

Next on the soapbox....#82.....#82, your up next.

Nov 30, 2007, 05:16 PM	#1
MacRumors macrumors bot Join Date: Apr 2001	Pepsi to Team Up with Amazon for Superbowl MP3 Giveaway? Pepsi and Amazon are negotiating a deal to give away up to 1 billion songs during a music-giveaway promotion that will launch during the 2008 Superbowl on February 3rd, according to Billboard Magazine. The deal is reminiscent of the early iTunes-Pepsi promotional giveaways that were launched at the 2004 and 2005 Superbowls. In the upcoming promotion, however, Amazon will replace Apple as the music distributor, providing MP3s from their DRM-free Music Store which launched as an early Beta in September. Amazon's DRM-free store works on Macs and integrates remarkably well with iTunes. The negotiations also serve as a push for several labels to join the DRM-free movement, since the promotion is sure to attract a large number of customers. Wal-Mart is also forcing the issue by alerting Warner Music Group and Sony BMG that they will pull all Windows Media Audio (DRM) format music from their site by January if the labels have not yet provided their music in MP3 format. At present, the labels offering DRM-free music are fragmented across stores. EMI was first to announce the launch of DRM-free music in iTunes, while Universal is offering DRM free music to everyone but iTunes. Article Link

Nov 30, 2007, 05:24 PM	#3
Nicolasdec macrumors 65816 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: London, UK	How dose this have anything to do with macs???? __________________ Macbook Pro 2.53GHz 4GB, 2.8GHz 4GB iMac Canon 5D II, 24-105 L f/4, 70-300 DO f/4.5-5.6, 180 F/3.5 L, Lensbaby Composer. Flickr

Nov 30, 2007, 05:25 PM	#4
lozanoj83 macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: SoCal	No iTunes? noooo... But it'll be interesting how it turns out in the end. __________________ Unibody MacBook Pro, 2.8 GHz, 4GB RAM, 500 GB FreeAgent Desktop 500GB FreeAgent Go 250GB Time Machine, Seagate 320GB

Nov 30, 2007, 05:28 PM	#5
nagromme macrumors 601 Join Date: May 2002 Location: Blinking blue dot	1 billion DRM-free songs, iPod-ready and integrated nicely with iTunes (which Amazon's downloader is)? Sounds good to me! __________________ nagromme Would you like a treatment?

Nov 30, 2007, 05:40 PM	#6
MrLubeMan macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Living the dream	Just Say No - to drm The record Cos. wouldn't listen to their customers. Now they whine about how bad the CD business is. Give customers quality, convenience, ease of use and they will spend money. Their business is changing and they have missed the bus. Now The market will dictate how they will have to do business. Tough crap. That is business. It is never static. Good luck Execs.

Nov 30, 2007, 05:22 PM	#2
confucious626 macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2006 Location: SoCal	This is going to be interesting.

Nov 30, 2007, 05:50 PM	#7
cal6n macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Brighton, UK	Excellent! Let the price wars begin... __________________ Is your internet experience tainted by trolls, shills, bigots & fools? Click [username] > View Public Profile > Add [username] to Your Ignore List > Save List Every little helps.

Nov 30, 2007, 05:57 PM	#8
Eduardo1971 macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Lost Angeles, Ca. usa	I've dowloaded several albums from Amozon's site and I too, am surprized how well Amazon's service works with iTunes. They have found a convert in me. __________________ 13" white 2Ghz Macbook, 250GB Hard drive, 2GB RAM Fight On!

Nov 30, 2007, 05:59 PM	#9
Warbrain macrumors 68040 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Chicago, IL	Why is this being voted down? This is great news regardless! No DRM! __________________ WARBRAIN Twitter \| Blog MacBook, 2.1 GHz C2D, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD iPhone 3G 8 GB

Nov 30, 2007, 06:12 PM	#12
timothyjay2004 macrumors regular Join Date: Apr 2007	I think it's getting voted down because everyone is getting tired of the music industry's crap. I for one am. I love iTunes. It made me go from downloading music illegally to downloading songs for 99 cents a pop. The music industry hates the fact that now CDs are not being sold as well because people only want the songs that are good, not the other filler crap often included on compact disks. Before iTunes, I looked into other digital download services, such as music match, and never found the same quality. If the record companies want to abandon iTunes, fine, I'll go back to the old way of doing things.. It's a hell of a lot cheaper for me, considering I have legally purchased 1,064 songs since iTunes 4 debuted with the store. As far as Amazon teaming up with Pepsi, I think it is good and bad at the same time. I honestly wish that Apple would bring back the Pepsi + iTunes deal that they had in 04 and 05. I drink pepsi, and I use iTunes, so it worked out well when I was on the road to pretty much get a 2 for 1. DRM free doesn't make much of a difference to me. If I want to make iTunes music DRM free, I'll just burn and reimport.. tada DRM free. I'm also not a fan of the MP3 format. MP4 (P or A), to me at least, sounds better. It's good that free songs are being given away and DRM free, for those that it matters to. But it stinks that iTunes isn't participating in it anymore... And that's my rant

Nov 30, 2007, 06:29 PM	#14
slffl macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Salt Lake City, UT	So you get to choose from a bunch of EMI songs? Sounds lame. I wonder if more record labels plan on going DRM-free before the Superbowl? __________________ Why waste your time posting how much you hate Apple products?

Nov 30, 2007, 06:45 PM	#16
Howmanoid macrumors member Join Date: Apr 2007	Snooze AAPL's been there, done that. You can't just do the same promo over and over again. Get's lame real quick. Wonder what the CEO of Universal thinks about giving away 1B songs without ever seeing a penny for them??? Makes his belly aching about iTunes revenue sharing seem a little pointless. __________________ Howmanoid Mostly humanoid partly Numanoid Http://www.noonedriving.com For more Apple stuff 4 core 2.66GHz Mac Pro, 2GB, 3TB RAID, 30" Cine

Nov 30, 2007, 06:49 PM	#19
nostaws macrumors regular Join Date: Jan 2006	I think this is bad news for apple (the pepsi amazon deal), but good news for consumers as a whole. This is great. I want to buy music anywhere and play it on anything (I am an ipod user). I might even buy more music.

Nov 30, 2007, 06:52 PM	#22
mandoman macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2005	It's getting voted down because it's pepsi instead of coke, nothing to do with itunes vs. amazon! Eww, Pepsi, who drinks that crap? Kidding aside, I am glad to see the push for DRM free music. Bigger news was the tidbit about Walmart coercing the labels to offer DRM free music. Coca-Cola and iTunes!

Nov 30, 2007, 07:12 PM	#24
japanime macrumors 6502 Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Japan	iTunes and Coca-Cola ran a similar campaign this past summer in Japan. I bought 30 bottles of Coke and won a grand total of 3 iTunes download codes.

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