Free Weekly iTunes

[MacRumors]

Amidst the many new features of iTunes 4.5, Apple has also started offering a new free song to be given away every week.

The iTunes Music Store features a new free single every week. On Tuesday of course. So if you want to keep current with all the new releases and newly added exclusives be sure to sign up for the free New Music Tuesdays email bulletin. It's a great reminder to download the free single every week.

This promotion should be beneficial both to the featured musical artists and Apple -- as it will draw more customers to the iTunes music store as well as provide more exposure to the featured artists.

[stoid]

Sorry international types, you still need an account to download the free song.

Soon, it's coming soon!

[DTphonehome]

Hey, can't beat free. I bet THIS gets them to 100 mil real quick.

[macnews]

one free song - by Justin Timberlake a week, yea haw!

[Wonder Boy]

i cant help but question how many of these free songs ill download. my taste is very particular.

[stoid]

Originally Posted by DTphonehome

Hey, can't beat free. I bet THIS gets them to 100 mil real quick.

I don't think that Apple can count these as purchased songs since they are not making any profit from this. At least with the Pepsi giveaway they got reimbursed from the songs. Indirectly though, if it attracts more customers and more downloads, then it will help reach that 100 mil goal.


Announced this WWDC: 1 in 3 purchased iTunes songs, and you get a free 20 oz Pepsi!

[Dippo]

I'll probably download the free songs just because they are free

Maybe this should be a poll question...?

[sharky2313]

this is a great idea and a good way to get genres. albums, or artists more exposure. what's the harm in trying a song for free? It's like the free samples at Costco. You know you try stuff that you would normally never buy.

[SilentPanda]

I will be downloading every single free song that is available. Why not? You might, just might want that song at some point. Even if just for background music to a video you make, even just using that song as a joke. You can always rate it as trash and use it later if you like. But it only takes up your bandwidth for a bit (providing you're not on a modem and if you are I guess you can use your discretion) and it takes up some harddrive space (which of course you can offload to a CD if it's a problem.

It's free! Be happy!

[narco]

I doubt they'll offer anything good for the free selection. Maybe the least popular download from that particular artist.

narco

[SilentPanda]

Oh! And don't forget... those caps have to be redeemed by the 30th of this month so if you've been stashing them away... go at it! You can only redeem 20 a day.

[wordmunger]

I've already downloaded the first free song, "My Hero" by the Foo-Fighters. Not exactly my style, but not a bad song. It could be worse, I think--and hey, it's free!

[slipper]

and where do i sign up for this? i dont see anything in the store where i could sign up.

[Stella]

I think its an excellent idea.. will get people to use iTMS who have not so far... even if its just to download the free music weekly - get them browsing the store etc etc.

Shame its available only for the minority of the world - err, I mean, the US only ;-)

I'm sure other countries will get this freebie option as iTMS becomes available.

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Amidst the many new features of iTunes 4.5, Apple has also started offering a new free song to be given away every week.



This promotion should be beneficial both to the featured musical artists and Apple -- as it will draw more customers to the iTunes music store as well as provide more exposure to the featured artists.

[dombi]

Originally Posted by slipper

and where do i sign up for this? i dont see anything in the store where i could sign up.

ONce you open up the iTunes Music Store (within iTunes), you should see a link in the middle (with the Foo Fighters in the background) saying free Downloads.

If you have a valid iTunes account you can download that one song for free.

[iMeowbot]

Originally Posted by slipper

and where do i sign up for this? i dont see anything in the store where i could sign up.

If you are signed up to use the store in general, you get access to the freebie tracks. This week the link is in the center if the iTMS main page, between the Pepsi and iTunes 4.5 ad panels. Just click on that, and the track will be highlighted and its button will read "get Song" instead of "buy song.", and the price is listed as "Free."

You do need to agree to the updated terms before you'll be allowed to download it.

[zedwards]

Just got this:

Lets celebrate a great year with a week of Free Downloads!
Wed: Foo Fighters
Thurs: Avril Lavigne
Fri: Courtney love
Sat: Annie Lennox
Sun: Janes Addiction
Mon: Counting Crows
Tues: Rene Fleming
Wed: Nelly Furtado

[baby duck monge]

Originally Posted by zedwards

Just got this:

Lets celebrate a great year with a week of Free Downloads!
Wed: Foo Fighters
Thurs: Avril Lavigne
Fri: Courtney love
Sat: Annie Lennox
Sun: Janes Addiction
Mon: Counting Crows
Tues: Rene Fleming
Wed: Nelly Furtado

interesting combination. i like the idea that all the free songs are not going to be just the same thing over and over again. it seems like a great idea to get people excited about the store and visiting every week! i would certainly be downloading today's selection if i did not already have the album.

can't wait to see what the counting crows song will be! i hope it's one of the itunes exclusive tracks!! (probably won't be, but it doesn't hurt to hope)

[njmac]

I will be downloading all the free songs, but I can't even get into the iTunes music store now. I guess the servers are really busy right now..?

[chibianh]

I wonder if Apple has to pay the labels for these songs that they're giving away for free. If so, how are they affording this if say 100,000 people downloads each free song? That's $0.66x100,000 = $66,000 x 8 = $528,000. And that's just the first 8 days. Would they put that much money into doing this as a weekly thing afterwards?

[Doctor Q]

Apple certainly knows how to get my attention. My favorite group is Foo Fighters.

[Kid Red]

So 2 idiots don't like free songs and voted this a negative story? Wow. I really would love to see that voting negative/positive crap removed from the front page.

Can't seem to access ITMS, guess everyone wants their free song, well, except for those 2 idiots

[gopher]

Still no Classical music free songs. What's worse is many albums still are "partial" which means if you want an entire album, you have to go out and buy the disk.

[apinaud]

i do not agree....
this is for the labels a free publicity, you give me the songs for free, I give it to my subscribers, there is a big chance if they like the song get another one of the same one, or get used to apple music store and buy more songs....
i think is a great deal

Originally Posted by chibianh

I wonder if Apple has to pay the labels for these songs that they're giving away for free. If so, how are they affording this if say 100,000 people downloads each free song? That's $0.66x100,000 = $66,000 x 8 = $528,000. And that's just the first 8 days. Would they put that much money into doing this as a weekly thing afterwards?

[bertagert]

This will defintely pull more people into using itunes. I wonder who's paying for these songs as well. If its Apple, I can see this as a huge advertising expense. Someone go get the facts and report back.