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Apple Rolls Out 'Countdown to 10 Billion Songs' Promotion

@140 songs per second and assuming constant rate (which is conservative), we have (((124 945 000 / 140) / 60) / 60) / 24 = 10.3294478 days until 10 billionth download.
 
ok guys i have a stupid idea first we get a guy to create a program that everyday it adds a free entrance form to the contest and then as soon as the 999...ect song is bought it will at the exact right time buy a song and then we all split the prize. buy nobody take my idea because its the 27 patent in my fake patent office
 
LagunaSol said:
Or you could just use Audio Hijack Pro or something?
Click to expand...

Thanx for the link...been there and was not impressed. Yeah...it works. But...and that's a big but...you have to watch the whole DVD in realtime and you have to stop the recording just on time.

With OSex and aged copyright measures you can just extract the audio chapter-wise and then use mac3dec to port the AC3 to mp3. Estimated 20 minutes and you're ready. And you don't have to sit in front of your machine all the time.

But thanx for the advice. A good workaround for Intel people :D

<EDIT>
Hey, just wanted to share...found this software with a little Google

Unfortunately no freeware, like the stuff I am used to, but maybe it will help some people.
 
it blows my mind how many people that that by buying a song you are creating an entry from a draw. THE PERSON WHO DOWNLOADS THE 10 BILLIONTH SONG WINS. IT IS THAT SIMPLE.
 
lewis82 said:
And once again, us Québecers are excluded.

I really hate the policy on contests which requires a mathematical question in order to win the prize.
Click to expand...

What? Can you link to that law? It sounds really stupid.

Dr Kevorkian94 said:
ok guys i have a stupid idea first we get a guy to create a program that everyday it adds a free entrance form to the contest and then as soon as the 999...ect song is bought it will at the exact right time buy a song and then we all split the prize. buy nobody take my idea because its the 27 patent in my fake patent office
Click to expand...

There is a captcha.
 
Non-purchase option - no https

No purchase is necessary and I don't feel like shelling out $25 a day for 25 entries. The non-purchase site http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-song-countdown/entryform/ does not use SSL and asks for name, address, phone number, birthdate, and email. They're expecting people to transmit just about every piece of information that would be used to verify an online account and reset a password without using any kind of encryption.
 
During the App Store promotion, someone found a link to the actual total app download count that was updated every hour.

Does such a link exist for the iTunes downloads? Members here had it down to the exact time the billionth download would occur. I couldn't participate because I was in school.

Also, the counter is web based and is updated every hour from the ping of the actual number. It then averages the growth from the past hour and extrapolates the number into a song-per-second rate.

If you change your computer's time, the old counter would change. I don't know if this one is similar.

But it would be fun to know the hourly official number to have a better idea of when to try and enter.
 
A 10,000 dollar gift card is a lot. I couldn't possibly use it all. If I win, what's your offer for it?
 
TheStonepedo said:
does not use SSL and asks for name, address, phone number, birthdate, and email. They're expecting people to transmit just about every piece of information that would be used to verify an online account and reset a password without using any kind of encryption.
Click to expand...

It's not as if that info about most people isn't already out in the wild unfortunately. I do not understand the questionable security however....
 
appleguy123 said:
There is a captcha.
Click to expand...

It is also expressed in the rules that cheating like this is strictly forbidden.

It's stupid to try to outwit Apple's lawyers. It won't work.

You could say the sky was blue and they would win in court proving it is actually orange.
 
Feeling kinda nerdy....

Now I do not disagree with the math that NeverhadaPC suggested...if anything I used that method the last time they hit the X-billionth song, because I wanted the macbook pro.

But there were two things that I realized at the last contest:
One, the speed to reach the given download is between a linear and exponential growth speed. Right now, what we are witness is mostly casual buyers and a small % of people trying to push ahead faster to 10 billion.

Two, as we draw closer to 9,999,999,999 the speed increases and a "stop and go" effect starts. You would notice as the deadline comes, the counter will stop and then go and then stop and then go. Which makes buying the 10 billionth song all based on luck really...

Lastly, your chances of getting the 10 billionth song is 1/(all the people trying to buy the one billionth at the right time). The number can be 1/10,000 or it can be high as 1/10,000,000...comparable to winning 2nd prize of most big game lottos.
 
nateharr said:
During the App Store promotion, someone found a link to the actual total app download count that was updated every hour.
Click to expand...
www.apple.com/autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.inc

Does such a link exist for the iTunes downloads? Members here had it down to the exact time the billionth download would occur.
Click to expand...

11-FEB-2010 14:00:00|9873639330|
11-FEB-2010 15:00:00|9874162148|522818
11-FEB-2010 16:00:00|9874666626|504478

I also have 13, and can therefore calculate 12, but won't get access to that record until tomorrow. My script is running and storing values.

Who's going to maintain the master list?
 
fracai said:
www.apple.com/autopush/us/itunes/includes/countdown.inc



11-FEB-2010 14:00:00|9873639330|
11-FEB-2010 15:00:00|9874162148|522818
11-FEB-2010 16:00:00|9874666626|504478

I also have 13, and can therefore calculate 12, but won't get access to that record until tomorrow. My script is running and storing values.

Who's going to maintain the master list?
Click to expand...


You are great. Thanks so much.

I'm not good with HTML or internet scripting so forgive me if it was a stupid question to ask.
 
RE: Use at the new ebooks store too

If the iTunes gift certificate could be used on tv shows, movies, and books, I'm pretty sure I could find a use for it very quickly! Just for books alone, you could use it for text books, digitizing your book collections, etc., which are more expensive than music per item.

Also, the $10,000 gets spent on mostly non-Apple products, so this is a less self-serving prize than giving out Apple products. Would be nice to purchase a new laptop and ipad with the prize too, but still an awesome prize!
 
I'm just curious how the taxes will work out.

It's valued as a cash prize, but it's not cash. Does this mean if I win I have to pay a few thousands of dollars in taxes on something I couldn't cash in?

That would really suck. I don't have a few thousand dollars lying around to pay for taxes on iTunes music. I could understand this on a transferable prize.

Sell the card for cash and pay the taxes and net the leftover.

I'd use the money to buy Apple products anyways. :D
 
Zonz said:
I don't understand why anyone would bitch about this. I desperately want a $10,000 card. It's not worthless... I currently have 20,000 songs, and this $10,000 gift card would only cover half of that. Plenty of people would find it valuable, and personally I would love an unlimited itunes pass.

It is concerning how you would pay taxes on something like this though...
Click to expand...

yeah, and then you have 30,000 songs which will only take you 62.5 days to listen to each of them once. If you don't sleep. Enjoy.
 
I have not read much about the "non-purchace" entry form on Apple's site. It says you can enter 25 times a day, but how will this give you a chance to win if it is based on the person who downloads the 10 billionth song? Is it worth entering 25 times a day on their site?
 
Congrats to SJ and Apple.

I love the way these days 0.2 of a Billion is 'almost there!' And it is, wow... and I thought that extra 16K on my Apple ][ language card was something else! Numbers sure get smaller as I get older.
 
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