Originally posted by sososowhat
Is nobody else skeptical about this? It could be true, but it sounds pretty unlikely to me. I read it as a rumor published by an online newspaper as a scoop.
a) I'm not that familiar with The NY Post, but my guess is that it is hardly the WSJ or NYT which are held to a higher standard for accuracy. Does anyone in NY know if this was also the headline of their Print edition?
b) The article itself isn't that well written. For instance, they call this "a ringing endorsement for the beleaguered music industry". How, exactly? No one's doubting that people listen to music. It would be a coup for Apple, not for the music industry.
c) They say that both Pepsi is paying Apple the retail price of 99 cents. Have we had this confirmed before? There's no way (none!) that Apple's getting that kind of free ride. Either Apple's contributing to the advertising budget, or chipping on on the songs. I don't recall hearing before any news about what Apple's paying or getting paid for this.
d) They assert that "pending on the campaign will probably be in the hundreds of millions of dollars." Assuming that means 200 or more, it implies 20%+ actually used, which, in my unscientific opinion is way more than would actually be cashed in.
e) It would certainly seem to steal the thunder from the Pepsi deal. I can't believe that Pepsi would stand for this (or that their contract would Apple would allow it).
That alone will generate more buzz around iTunes then Napster or any of iTMS's competition could hope to generate. 
