McDonalds to give away 1 Billion iTunes songs

[lyonsden]

Just saw this when looking at the stock quotes for Apple (and others)

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031106/bw_leisure_mcdonalds_downloads_1.html

http://www.nypost.com/business/10067.htm

McDonalds is going to do an iTunes promotion and give away 1 Billion (that's Billion with a 'B') iTunes songs.

The short article also says that Pepsi and McDonalds are paying the full .99 retail price to Apple for these promotions.

[edit: added nypost link]

 

[robbieduncan]

Wow. That's insane. 1 billion tracks? How many people in the US have a computer connected to the Net (and fast enough to make it worth downloading a few Mb of data for a song). 1 billion sounds like enough for everyone to get at least 1 track!

 

[rainman::|:|]

there are far less than a billion people in the US. more like 250-300 million, i don't remember exactly. take the fraction that are active computer/music users, who have iTunes, and that's quite a few songs per person. unfortunately, i'm guessing a huge percentage will be given to people that will never use them... i wonder if McD will pay for the actual number of songs downloaded?

pnw

 

[Squire]

That's crazy. I wonder how they'll go about the giveaway part. Would they give coupons to customers? No, then they'd have to pay for all of the tunes no matter what. Hmmm...

Squire

 

[ckwm]

Got to be a good thing though, even if just to get people downloading iTunes. With Pepsi and MacD into the iTunes store it looks as if it is fast becoming the standard.

 

[jrv3034]

Weird... McDonalds has always been a Coca Cola sponsor. I wonder how they feel being promotional partners with Pepsi...

Anyways, this can only be a good thing for Apple. Yay.

 

[FelixDerKater]

I'm sure they'll end up only paying for the amount of songs actually downloaded. Many of them will go undownloaded. Who knows... It will probably be a coupon or something attached to the drinks or french fry cartons.

 

[jamesatzones]

Looks like I will be eating some Micky Deee's in the future...

 

[chibianh]

that's great! now the question is... do i have to supersize my meal to get the free music?

 

[drastik]

holy crap, that's one big revenue stream for Apple and the lables. To bad I don't eat fast-food garbage anymore

 

[machan]

this is totally insane. 1 billion!?!?! i hate mcdonald's, but i'm glad apple got a billion dollars out of the deal.

 

[scem0]

This will be very good for apple....

Apple needs to attract younger people. Im gunna eat at mcdonalds more .

scem0

 

[Mr. Anderson]

1 billion bigmacs to go

I don't eat there, so I lose. Ugh! What to do, what to do.....maybe some late night dumpster diving an get all the one thrown away

D

 

[Jerry Spoon]

I hope weight watchers starts giving away free songs on itms after the mcdonalds promotion because I'm going to need it.

 

[machinehien]

that is sick

Sound's good for apple. Not too sure about how it positions the brand though. Pepsi was a little of a stretch but there was history there. McDonalds though? Not too sure if I am loving it.

But hey, a billion dollars is a billion dollars.

 

[matthew_goldin]

I thought it was Pepsi who was doing that.

 

[mkaake]

holy crap.

that's all i have to say.

matt

 

[Squire]

I can understand why this got moved to the Front Page. What exposure! Is Apple going to be doing the majority of the advertising or will Rotten Ron's take care of it?

I thought iTMS only had, like, 400,000 songs!

Sorry. Weak.

Squire

 

[bipto]

Usually, promotions like this one that can cost a whole lotta money are insured against the entire amount coming in. McDonald's technically isn't paying anything for the songs, they're paying an insurance company who will end up paying Apple when it's all said and done.

That's how is usually works, anyway...

 

[LethalWolfe]

Holy mother of promotional deals Batman!


Lethal

 

[maxtrax]

I read that both Pepsi and McD's are paying the actual 99 cents per downloaded song. So all this promo costs Apple nothing and they sell millions of songs? How does this work, anyone know?

 

[the_mole1314]

I think this will be the whole peal off tag and find code thing like the monopoly game.

 

[Malic]

Music is a killer app

Before iTMS, it was pre-relaunch Napster (prNapster?). All the talk was about "This shouldn't be piracy but form of guerilla advertising".

Now it comes full circle, the dream is realized; Music is something YOU GIVE AWAY AS AN ENTICEMENT TO BUY SOMETHING ELSE! In the prNapster days, music was an unofficial enticement to buy broadband. Now, it's potentially MUCH more.

It's so funny to picture a near-future in which record labels sign BIG contracts to give away product - willingly.

 

[Trimix]

it shows how much SJ is so much ahead of - urrrggh buymusic.com and others - there i said it - it is not even funny anymore.
good for apple, good for consumers, good for mcd, bad for your waistline

 

[Sailfish]

Add all the local McDonalds to my iTunes begging route.

"Spare 'tunes anyone?"