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McDonald's Denies Deal With iTunes 170
fdiv_bug writes "Turns out, according to a press release, that the iTunes Music Store/McDonald's deal mentioned earlier today was only a rumor. A swing and a miss for the New York Post." It sounded pretty plausible, even if the cost was roughly 50% more than McDonald's usual yearly advertising expenditures.
Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:5, Funny)
1. Invent boy band
2. Tie download of boy band song to Happy Meals
3. Profit!
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:5, Funny)
ah yes, "news for marketing professionals,"
if your focus group is slashdot you're in serious trouble, my lad.
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:5, Funny)
No kidding. If McDonalds really wanted a promotion to get slashdotters, they should offer trading cards of anime girls and a wad of kleenex with every happy meal.
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow the term "Happy Meal" just took on a whole new sinister meaning...
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:2)
SHIVer
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:2)
Actually, as someone who works in marketing/advertising, I can honestly say that there is a lot of insightful information to be gained from the comments on Slashdot.
Despite the jokes, and the nature of the community, there are indeed some very intelligent people on here from all over the globe. And while I would certainly never rely on someone's Slashdot post for something, there is definitely s
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:3, Interesting)
I had just got done discussing this with a friend at class tonight too. After I explained it to him - yeah, we both kinda looked at each other and went REALLY?. A billion songs for a billion dollars? - Not even Mc Donald's is stupid enough to pay for that many songs - over half of which wouldn't even get redeemed...
Pity though really - this is phenomenal advertising for i-Tunes & a great business proposition for McDonald's - they should really look into it - but maybe not at a billion son
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps only pay for the songs that are actually redeemed...
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Maybe this can herald a new way to .... (Score:2)
Not so fast... (Score:5, Funny)
(or was it lost when saved using Panther's new FileVault feature [yahoo.com], which acts as an auxiliary trash can? To be honest, I forget now.)
Re:Not so fast... (Score:1, Insightful)
you totally blow tat supposition away when you claim this:
The philosophy behind the distribution of Linux is Un-American and more like communism.
This cannot be good for our country.
EVERYONE knows that University professors are Communists.
Re:Not so fast... (Score:1)
I think that IBM may disagree with you here as they are a HUGE backer of Linux and provide it on many of their high end servers [ibm.com]. At over $80 billion revenue yearly, they must be doing something right.
There's always Pepsi... (Score:1)
David
Re:There's always Pepsi... (Score:1)
Of course everyone's getting fat. Everything is food and liquid sugar.
Damn... (Score:5, Funny)
Not that McDonalds is much better. Or any better, actually.
Re: (Score:2)
A Non-Denial Denial (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, I seriously doubt that McDonalds would pay $1 billion for $1 billion songs, first there's gotta be a volume discount in the billions, second, not every song is going to be redeemed so it doesn't make any sense that they would pay for the songs that don't get bought.
Re:A Non-Denial Denial (Score:5, Insightful)
(Okay, it's not fun. Wake me when it's over.)
Re:A Non-Denial Denial (Score:2)
Re:A Non-Denial Denial (Score:2, Insightful)
So, in a supposed agreement between two companies, neither one will confirm it. This is worthy of printing because.....???
That is the beauty of it. (Score:2, Interesting)
IT works for both companies: Think of the extra exposure it would give itunes.... McDonalds is HUGE.
If MCDonalds does it... everyone on earth will hear about Itunes, and inquire as to what it is, etc.
Re:That is the beauty of it. (Score:3, Informative)
Both Pepsi and McDonald's are paying Apple's retail price of 99 cents per song, sources say.
This would be $1 billion dollars. You aren't paying for the mp3, you are paying for the liscence to have it. Although to a conglomerate like McD's maybe a billion dollars is negligible.
Re:That is the beauty of it. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:That is the beauty of it. (Score:2)
Gift Certs (Score:2)
I bet they try and tie it into the gift certs somehow, so that they get auto created upon redemption and McDonald's only charged for what is used.
Re:A Non-Denial Denial (Score:4, Interesting)
McDonald's would have to negiotiate that with the labels directly, most likely. I'm sure Apple would be happy to break even on the deal, just for the promotion and getting people accustomed to building their music libraries in iTunes. However, according to most industry estimations Apple pays ~$0.70 US to the appropriate record label (for major label content) for each sale, so any volume discount they give would have to be at or around that price. The record labels would be wise, in my opinion, to sell these tracks to McDonald's / Apple for a reduced rate, say $0.40 US. While this lowers margins for everyone involved, it is great marketing for McDonald's, Apple, and those pesky labels. I look forward to this deal working out, it would be even bigger than the Pepsi deal for educating the public on the value of legal digital music.
Re:A Non-Denial Denial (Score:2)
Scary footage...children look away! (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Scary footage...children look away! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Scary footage...children look away! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Scary footage...children look away! (Score:2)
Original Steve Ballmer video (Score:3, Insightful)
Also look at this hilarious picture [bbspot.com].
ROTFLMAO, MOD UP, PLEASE... (Score:2)
Yeah... (Score:2, Funny)
Not a very strong denial (Score:5, Informative)
While it's hard to tell from a press release that's been groomed by a PR department of a major international corporation, I still sense that this isn't a very strong denial.
All the press release says is that they haven't announced anything yet, and that the reports are speculation. (This is something we all knew ANYWAY.) This could've been released to deflate expectations a bit before the real announcement.... or it in fact could be that they have no plans to do the iTMS deal.
In either case, I'm not getting my hopes up, but then again, I didn't have my hopes up when the rumor first floated. I figured that if the deal would happen, it probably wouldn't happen right away.
Re:Not a very strong denial (Score:3, Informative)
Media speculation
Soft denial
More media speculation
Harder ambiguous denial
Yet more media speculation
Leak a single detail
Lots more media speculation
Court injunction
LOTS of media speculation and sunday paper features
Announce deal
Lots of 'we fucking knew it' self congratulatory media coverage
Its 'cheap PR 101' guys!!
I want my WWN! (Score:2, Funny)
If Slashdot is going to start posting erroneous stories from tabloids such as the New York Post [nypost.com], they should instead post stories from the Weekly World News. I don't believe what a newspaper says unless it has BatBoy endorsing it!
New today: litterboxes for humans!
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/news/index.cfm [weeklyworldnews.com]
Tomorrow's headline (Score:3, Informative)
What a total waste of time! (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks Apple!
Silly New York Post... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, well... (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good ploy McDonalds (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Good ploy McDonalds (Score:1)
Pure speculation (Score:3, Insightful)
It's "pure speculation". Notice they didn't say anything against/for it. Speculation is a very neutral term. Merriam Webster [m-w.com] says:
Speculation [m-w.com]: an act or instance of speculating
And speculating [m-w.com] means: to meditate on or ponder a subject
McD is still WORKING ON IT! Doesn't mean they've decided one way or another, it's just that they're thinking about IT! Before
Re:Pure speculation (Score:2)
So, that that then... (Score:5, Funny)
Ronald McDonald DOES read SlashDot.
Dodgy marketing (Score:2, Interesting)
One more thing...McDonalds "continues to aggressively pursue bold new initiatives in the areas of music, sports, fashio
Re: (Score:1)
Healthy Alternative (Score:2, Funny)
NY Post probably got their facts mixed up (Score:2)
McDonald's New Deal (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:1)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:2)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:1)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:1)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:2)
Re:McDonald's New Deal (Score:1)
Huh ? (Score:2)
I can't figure out whether the editor was being sarcastic, suggesting that it *wasn't* plausible, or if he was being serious, to suggest that such a huge expenditure was plausible.
Perhaps the sheer size of the number he quotes should (*if* it's correct) answer my own question, but I don't know if I'm willing to give these editors that much credit...
Re:Huh ? (Score:2)
Or, like they say in Catch-22:
- Milo, how can y
Re:Huh ? (Score:1)
people like ipod but...... (Score:3, Funny)
I would take 40 gigs of songs (hmm, good ones, so really, around 15 megs), yes, but not with 40 pounds of grease.
And in other news, man won $1 bill worth of songs stuck inside a local McDonalds.
The WiFi / iTunes connection (Score:5, Insightful)
WiFi alone? Eh.
WiFi and free iTunes? Now there's something.
Of course, who wants to bring their computer into a greasy McDonald's and get Secret Sauce all over it while surfing the 'Net. Ew... forget I went there!
Starbucks. Those guys would do well with an iTunes promo. They've already rolled out the WiFi part of the equation.
Cleanup on aisle 5! (Score:2)
You just put two very ugly images in my mind. My Wallstreet PowerBook, and my Thinkpad 600E, both slimed. With Filet-O-Fish tartar sauce, actually, if it was IRL. This reminds me why this is such a bad idea.
Starbucks. Those guys would do well with an iTunes promo. They've already rolled out the WiFi part of the equation.
Then again, coffee spillage has
OT: love the sig file! (Score:1)
Re:The WiFi / iTunes connection (Score:2)
And this is different from surfing the net in the privacy of your home in what way?
Not So Far-Fetched (Score:5, Insightful)
Here is an example: Lets say the real deal is $100 Million (just like the Pepsi deal so it is not out of the realm of possibility). McD now has a block of songs that it can do whatever it wants with. If McD has a promotion where they would normally be giving away copies of a CD, they could replace it with a free download of the album from the iTMS. Apple could restrict the redemption so that only the designated album can be downloaded (making success/failure analysis quite easy).
If the promo succeeds, everyone is happy. However, if the promo fails (cuz the music sucks, for example), they would normally have piles of CDs that would just get trashed. Money wasted on production, storage, transportation, and destruction/recycling. With iTMS, they can just keep the unused downloads and repurpose them for a future event, such as a prize in the Monopoly game they run every so often.
In the end, McD has only paid for what it used. Very economical.
NY Post is Rupert Murdoch's rag? (Score:2)
Re:NY Post is Rupert Murdoch's rag? (Score:2)
Re:NY Post is Rupert Murdoch's rag? (Score:2, Informative)
but it also owns some of the most respected including Fox News and Sky News
Umm.. Fox News is respected? That's news to me. Somehow falsely reporting that WMD have been found in Iraq every 5 minutes doesn't get you a lot of respect. Neither does threatening to sue The Simpsons for making fun of Fox News. Or how about suing Al Franken for trademark violations of the phrase "Fair and Balanced"? Fox News is many things, but a respected news organization is not one of them.
I know about nothing about Sk
Re:NY Post is Rupert Murdoch's rag? (Score:2)
DEAL OR TRADE??? (Score:1)
Oh, damn for McDonald's (Score:1)
Re:Oh, damn for McDonald's (Score:2)
one thousand million dollars plausible?? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:one thousand million dollars plausible?? (Score:2)
In all fairness... (Score:2)
Why does this warrent a story? (Score:1)
Also, I'd like to be the first to surface the rumor of Uncle Steve releasing a 1 terabyte iPod to coincide with the announcement of this McDonalds promotion; so you CAN hold all billion songs....
The New York Post, a bastion of accuracy (Score:2)
Now that's a big surprise. [thesmokinggun.com]
The New York Post (Score:2)
The Enquirer sometimes has more accurate stories than them.
__________________________________________
Re:The New York Post (Score:2)
Re:The New York Post (Score:2)
How much money, really? (Score:4, Insightful)
When you add it all up, there's only 55,000,000 Best Buy pieces in cirulation... and that's from a pretty full tilt campaign by McDs standards. Therefore, I think that's the reasonable cap on how many songs total McDs could give away if such a promotion happens.
Re:How much money, really? (Score:2)
Still, it's a great idea to motivate the teenage/young adult demographic to visit McD's more frequently.
Mac Rumours says the deal is on.... (Score:1)
So even if it's not true... (Score:1)
Just waiting for that headline.... (Score:5, Funny)
'In a dawn raid on McDonaldstown by the RIAA, fictional corporate character Hamburgler was placed under arrest for downloading a number of copyrighted songs. Currently languishing in federal 'pound me in the ass' psison, Hamburglar was reported to have said in response to the allegations 'Robble robble. Robble robble robble robble robble. Robble!' No court date has yet been set.'
It's still a possibility (Score:1)
ok.. (Score:2)
Rus
nice rumor (Score:1)
Big $$$ in WiFi @ Mickey D's (Score:2, Insightful)
Some time ago, the news [foxnews.com] media began [pcworld.com] reporting [bbc.co.uk] that McDonald's was to going to provide wireless access in their restauraunts. That service, according to McDonald's itself [mcdonalds.com], would in some places be for pay.
McDonald's giveaway will promote its for-pay WiFi access. iTMS is the market leader of downloaded music with, according to a 5 November analyst conference call held by Apple [apple.com], over 80% market share. McDonald's will be able to "give away" US $0.99 tracks to, in some cases, sell US $2.99/day WiFi access.
I w
Confirmation that the Denial is False (Score:2)
It's true. (Score:2)
They stated there are no announcements to be made at this time, the same as many other companies who have accidently let the cat out of the bag on Apple's behalf have. It will happen.
Its the New York Post. They get everything wrong. (Score:2)
Re:this is good (Score:1)
Re:Come on... (Score:1)
Re:Whoa (Score:1, Flamebait)