Hmmmmmm.... if Apple says 5 million songs were redeemed, I wonder how many songs were really redeemed ? (2 million ?)

Huhm... 5 million maybe?

Twenty-six ?

And how many pep$i bottles were actually sold for this purpose during this campaign or did everyone use 'the trick'?
Every twenty-six of them...

While we are on the subject.

I wonder how much of that money went to the artists.

I have a hard time believing that they were compensated accordingly. It just shows that they are willing to through around millions of songs the same way p2p users do.

Those bastards

At work we have a Pepsi machine that serves 20 oz bottle of soda. In a little more than two weeks at two sodas a day I collected 7 free tunes. I went to the web site and couldn't believe the hoops I had to jumb through to claim them, it just wasn't worth the hassle.

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Sophocles:

Thanks for that.

When you went to redeem your tunes, did they ask you for a credit card number?

Did you have to sign up for anything? Were your "free redemptions" contingent (dependent) upon your setting up an account with them?

Or did they actually allow you, after the prerequisite bullshit, to redeem your tunes?

(Just wondering). Thnx. :)

PS: Did you get your tunes? Do they have anything worth listening to or paying for?

Its been about 3 weeks and I don't remember every step but I never claimed a single tune. The first hoop was giving up personal information, then you had to download the itunes software which resulted in more hoops and spam. I've just copied from two Pepsi caps the numbers of two free unclaimed songs. Have two daring souls private message me and I will give them the unused codes and they can document the expereince first hand. Moderators welcome.

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Sorry A-Klingon didn't fully answer your question. They essentially set you up for an account but I can't remember if they asked for my Visa number or not.

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No Sophocles, you did fine.

Yeah, I suspect they will want you (me, anyone) to set up a full account with them.

I am tempted by your kind offer, but think maybe I'll pass.

Were you ever able to access their Artist's list? (Did you manage to get that far?). I was wondering what type or breadth of music they offered. Normally, with other setups, I think you pretty much have to be a fully-setup member before they will even let you *look* at what they have got available.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, two different iTune's encryption schemes have been 'cracked'. The latest scheme was busted in, like 24 hours or something.

If I stumble upon any of the latest cracks in my web travels, I may ask you for one of your redemption codes (if you still have them), but boy! I have little desire to wade through all of their setup screens, and download proprietary iTunes software, which I'm 99.99% sure I'll never use.

(But thank you).

Yes, its their list they're selling. They seem to have a reasonable selection but it isn't worth the bother. I've been using Rhaposdy for over a year now and it's a pretty good service for $9.95 a month. I use it more as jukebox or radio since I don't actually buy any tunes from them and I think it's worth what I pay but this Pepsi promotion is a hook for realing in the fish.

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You know, it's funny......

I just (now) went to the Kazaa P2P system and searched for "iTunes". (Any iTune at all). I was looking for something, anything, encrypted. (Hey, ya never know).

A number of entries showed up under names like 'Pepsi/iTunes Ad' and 'The iTunes Sessions', but all of these were in .mp3 format. (Which kind of defeats my purpose).

If I could have found a genuine iTunes file, I could then have "worked on it", if you know what I mean. I'm not even sure what the file-extension name for an iTunes is.

Ha! (Time to pass, methinks). :-)

I'll join your search perhaps I can find one that is small enough to upload or I can point you to it.

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Some information on using itunes.

http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/itms/

http://www.goingware.com/tips/legal-downloads.html

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www.stopriaalawsuits.com


and stop these money hungry bastards!

I've heard of people going into the store, looking under the caps, writing down the codes, and leaving, without buying. I didnt believe it but i looked under 1 and i saw the code, easy, i didnt take it because thats wrong(and i love pepsi), but whenever i bought a pepsi i would just make sure i got a free song:)

Kingtroy, did you successfully claim your free tunes and if so tell us about it.

I'd be curious about that too.

I would imagine that if a code had been used once, it would not be useable again.

I noticed the other day that the official iTunes site offers a free (weekly or monthly, I forget which), "sample" iTune which you can download for free.

But again, I bet you have to sign up for an account first though. Not only that, but you have to be using XP. I only have Win98SE and Win2000. And you still have to download and install the iTunes software program to get anything.

No way am I going to do all that. That's why it would have been nice to have a free-standing iTunes file to "work" on - after conversion, you could play it back on any OS.