Recycle some of your 100 million Pepsi Songs

grub writes "If you're one of the people that wins a free download from Apple's iTunes during the upcoming 100 million song giveaway from Pepsi, then check out Tune Recycler. They say: "With the Tune Recycler, you can send us your unwanted iTunes bottlecap codes and we'll use them to support independent music. Easy for you, and good for musicians" Sounds like a great idea for payments that may otherwise be tossed in the trash."

Honest indies

[1000101]

"When you submit a winning Pepsi code to the Tune Recycler, we'll redeem it for music from honest, independent labels."
Just because a label is independent doesn't make them honest. There are shady businesses everywhere.

pepsi supports independent artists!?

[knowles420]

well, not without some sort of gimmick. not that i'm against small bands actually getting a share of the spoils here, but aren't they the type of artists that should be supported in the first place?

Re:Killing the golden goose?

[Kjella]

It's very likely that those that don't have any interest in the iTMS codes or how they can get free music, don't have any interest in this project either. My guess is they'll still ignore it, and if someone else tries to gather up codes locally they're more likely to use it to get a nice collection rather than donate it to this project anyway.

So while it's a nice thing, I hardly think it'll have a significant impact on the number of caps claimed.

Kjella

Don't feel bad for the poor guitar player...

[gb506]

I wish I had the type of nimble, strong, and boisterous advocacy for my art that independent musicians seem to have. The darn Pepsi deal hasn't even officially started yet and they're already trying to maximize profit.

Their machine would be pretty impressive to me if there weren't other types of artists out there in much greater need. I mean, you can't swing a friggin' cat without hitting some longhair with a guitar. But a painter, sculptor etc? Have fun trying to "get paid" for that.

No need to mail the physical cap...

[interactive_civilian]

People can just email them the redemption code printed on the cap and they can use it to claim the free download.

Cheers. :)

Where are the files going?

[LostCluster]

Why does this group want the codes given to them?

Wouldn't a better plan be to link to some of the better indie artists on the service and tell people to download their songs, therefore allowing people to actually listen to the music their code purchased?

this is interesting

[minus_273]

and i dont mean the site asking for caps. The interesting bit it that this will be announced in a big commercial during the superbowl later today that will proclaim that you can legally download free music. i get the impression that this will appeal to alot of people. i hope that it is a huge success .. i know iwill buy pepsi instead of coke simple becasue of the offer :) .. i think thw best thing to do is get a song and give to 2 friends as well that way you have 1/3 odds and 3 people :)

Re:Killing the golden goose?

[MisterFancypants]

Even the Tune Recycler site admits that Pepsi and Apple are expecting that a majority of the "winning" bottlecaps are going to be ignored and unclaimed. If this kind of site encurages more returns than antisipated, might this prevent there from being a repeat of this promotion in the future?

There's no way this project will even cause a blip on the radar. In fact, I'd be really surprised if they got many submissions at all. Generally, the people who do not participate in the contest will either be those who threw the cap away without even looking at it, or people who are not net-savvy enough to be 'hip' to iTunes and anyone who falls into that category certainly isn't going to know about this project.

Neat idea, I suppose, but ultimately unpractical.

No good

[skyfaller]

The problem is that Downhill Battle is, first of all, providing this service for people who have not installed or cannot install iTunes (such as Linux users). Secondly, they don't think that iTunes is a good idea, and they'd rather that people didn't use it at all. See their site iTunes is bogus [downhillbattle.org].

Buy your own indie music

[NiKnight3]

The site given links to RIAA Radar, a site that tells the relative connection between an artist and the RIAA. A better solution would be to go to that site and discover some new, independent music for yourself. That's actually what they tell people to do if you already use iTunes... they just want the caps if you don't want to bother downloading Apple's program.

Re:how long

[jdcook]

"Furthermore, they technically have a cash value of 1/20 cents (read the fine print). IANAL, but IAARSP (I am a relatively smart person)."

Many coupons specify a "cash redemption value" of 1/20 or 1/100 cent. But a thing is still worth what it will bring. Think about it. If this weren't true, why would anyone pay a premium for a 1943 copper penny which technically has a cash value of 1 cent? You may be a relatively smart person but you are nonetheless wrong.

Why not use the winning bottlecaps yourself?

[ScottGant]

Use them yourself and buy the independent music that's available from iTunes? That way, you're helping to support the independent artist, AND you're opening up yourself to new music!

Don't download that song you've heard a million times on the radio or something like that. Explore the musical frontiers...even if they're not that good, you'll never know unless you look. And you may find a gem.

If you DO find a gem of a song out there, you've "won" again in addition to the free download itself!

Just a thought.

Re:Where are the files going?

[RalphBNumbers]

Damn right!

I'm all for musicians getting a decent cut of the profit their music generates, but this doesn't do that at all.

This gives big chunks of money to a few specific bands chosen by downhillbattle, and gives the consumer no music in return.

Hell, this actually discurages perople from listening to these indie bands' music, by taking a potential listener's free song and essentially throwing it away. That sounds alot more like what a corporate money grubing weasel would do than an honest musician who actually wants to be heard.

C'mon, why trust these guys?

[Anonymous Coward]

At the very beginning they claim the service and the software will cost you more than the Pepsi proving they're either ignorant or dishonest. Then all the way through the article they make it obvious that for whatever reason they have a corn cob up their rear ends about iTunes.

If you want to support independents, then fer cryin' out loud, go out and buy their CDs, records, tapes, and online music. And especially support local live music---you won't regret it. Don't turn to these really strange self appointed messiahs. If you don't want major record companies to dictate what you should listen to, why would you want anyone else to either?

troll, my karma sucks anyways

[Nihynjahs]

honeslty, tune recylcer is being stupid. i for one will not give them my bottle caps and im wondering if anyone else will i mean there is good music that i want that i can get off of itunes and by golly is anyone really going to give them their bottlecaps?
why not just give them to someone you know rather than mailing them something, hell just go and buy some "open source zealot musicians" cd if its that big of a deal, but if you give them to tune recycler your almost wasting it in my opinion the artitsts only get 50 cents so send them a check and save yourself a stamp or some effort sending them an e-mail.
hmm we could sign with a non-evil label and get lots of money back, or we could sign on a evil label get promoted better possibly make less money per cd, but sell more of them and make more money from volume
i mean honestly sharing music is illegal if you are violating the copyright and whatnot. I dont give a crap about the RIAA being evil except i wish cd's were cheaper, but now i have itunes, im happy to pay for a good cd, but when i only want one song itunes is a much better deal. if music was open source we wouldnt have good music. because people wouldnt be very inspired to make music, they would like to go and make money in a real job, and you guys wouldnt support it and you know it. if you got it for free, for most of you freeloaders you wouldnt give anything back. how many people who use linux give things back willingly, i honestly have not given one distribution one cent so condemn me to hell. honestly, would we start open source music labs or something? The RIAA is definatley in it for themselves but its almost a neccesary evil.

Re:Killing the golden goose?

[Blondie-Wan]

If this kind of site encurages more returns than antisipated, might this prevent there from being a repeat of this promotion in the future?

Why would it? Pepsi (with Apple's cooperation) is the one running the contest, not any of the music labels. The music labels (both the "Big Five" and the indies) care which songs consumers choose to download, but there's no reason for Pepsi to do so (well, unless you make the stretch of saying they hope to groom more corporate teen pop a la Britney for use in their future ads), and there's certainly no reason for Apple to care. From their perspective, it's all the same - the sponsor (Pepsi) will pay the same 99 cents for an indie song that it does for an RIAA-associated one. Apple will the same cut from payment for an indie song as for a major label one, and will pass on the rest to the label.

Assuming Apple and Pepsi want more of the winning codes to be redeemed (certainly Apple probably does; Pepsi may not, since it has to pay for them), then the more of these things get cashed in at all, the more successful the promotion will be deemed to have been. To them, it doesn't matter what particular music is downloaded, because it's all the same to them. It only matters to the labels and artists. Someone might choose to download a tune from an artist on a Sony label, or from one on the indie Matador label, and either way, Pepsi will pay the 99 cents, and Apple will take its cut of that and pass on the rest to the label. The only ones who'll care what song it is are the label, possibly the artist (if not getting screwed by the label), and of course the consumer.

Re:code??

[Endive4Ever]

Given the size of the collection of valid numbers that they're presumably going to accumulate, perhaps they have a better chance of finding a pattern that lets them increase their odds. Did you even think about the question the grandparent comment was asking??

Re:how long

[Chess_the_cat]

...and don't bother bidding on more than 200, that's the maximum number of downloads per email address).

Because e-mail addresses are so hard to come by.

Re:Why do I feel this is a scam

[Anonymous Coward]

People who endorse and encourage illegal activities normally aren't very reputable

[...]

Sorry, I just don't believe criminals.

I see the normally caveat but heres some reading for you. (Can't let these fascism supporting slashdotters get away with saying crap like that.)

1 [wikipedia.org]

2 [wikipedia.org]

3 [wikipedia.org]

4 [wikipedia.org]

5 [wikipedia.org]

Bad news for Pepsi

[CrazyTalk]

With any kind of promotion like this, they are expecting only a certain percentage of people to actually bother to redeem the botttle caps - if 10% redeem them, they only have to pay royalties for 10% of the songs in the give away. Now, more bottle caps will be redeemed then they counted on - this could end up being a very high price tag for Pepsi!

Re:Mountain Dew?

[Schnapple]

Actually, I meant that switching from Coke to Pepsi is too much - but I could handle Mountain Dew. Or Code Red.

Re:Whoa, I answered my own question.

[Toasty981]

Oh, I was just having fun...it's more a moderator thing :) I love when someone's "Me too!" post gets modded up more than the parent.

iTMS in Canada?

[IntergalacticWalrus]

Yeah, OK, this is somewhat off-topic, but I'd like to know: does anybody know if iTMS will ever get to Canada? As of now, all online music buying services in Canada suck, and besides I prefer Apple's DRM to Microsoft's.

As an avid death metal fan...

[Killswitch1968]

iTunes provides nothing of value to me. Considered my bottlecaps forwarded.

Re:Killing the golden goose?

[nyseal]

I guess helping the environment only applies when you pay up front and have a bar code scanner. What a country.