McDonald's Denies Deal With iTunes

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.

A Non-Denial Denial

[GabrielF]

This was a definite non-denial denial. "There are no agreements to announce" doesn't say anything about agreements under consideration, etc.
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.

Pure speculation

[herrvinny]

DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones)--McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - News) characterized a published report that it plans a massive digital song giveaway promotion as "pure speculation."

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 /. issues a retraction, try RTFD (Reading the F**king Dictionary). Can we set up some kind of dictionary fund for /. editors? Like this [ebay.com] or this [barnesandnoble.com]?

Re:A Non-Denial Denial

[dbirchall]

It's such fun to watch people waffle between "this is the unadulterated truth" and "this is completely false" when something is merely unconfirmed.

(Okay, it's not fun. Wake me when it's over.)

Re:Not so fast...

[the_2nd_coming]

PLEASE.....you expect us to believe you are a College professor?

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.

Original Steve Ballmer video

[exhilaration]

I found it, view the video here [stenstad.net].

Also look at this hilarious picture [bbspot.com].

The WiFi / iTunes connection

[Infonaut]

It might have actually worked for McDonald's. They're not exactly conquering the world these days, and they definitely need a means of bringing people into the stores.

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.

Not So Far-Fetched

[QGambit]

While I agree that the the $1 Billion figure is probably wishful thinking on the Post's part, I will say that this deal does strike me as VERY do-able. McD has given away music CDs for years during various promotions, as have other fast-food chains. I can see music giveaways in digital form taking hold very quickly.

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.

one thousand million dollars plausible??

[Anonymous Coward]

A moments thought would have told anyone with common sense that no company is going to give away one billion dollars worth of free music. In fact, what company would buy one billion of anything and not expect a substantial discount?

How much money, really?

[LostCluster]

$1 billion seems out of line. McDonald's only is giving away $55,283,390 worth of Best Buy money, not all of which will be turned in undoubtably, in the current Monopoly Best Chance Game promotion. $54,983,390 of that will be in the form of 54,983,390 $1 pieces.

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:Maybe this can herald a new way to ....

[leviramsey]

Perhaps only pay for the songs that are actually redeemed...

Big $$$ in WiFi @ Mickey D's

[MisterSquid]

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 wonder if some of those Happy Meal freebies will include a day's worth of free WiFi.

Re:A Non-Denial Denial

[silicon not in the v]

Yeah, when you read the original story, it has a very suspicious line: "A spokesperson for Apple declined comment, and a representative of McDonald's was unavailable for comment."

So, in a supposed agreement between two companies, neither one will confirm it. This is worthy of printing because.....???