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Music Businesses Media Apple

1 Billion iTunes Contest 141

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the slavering-and-drooling-accountants dept.
pvt_medic writes "Apple has announced their newest contest for the 1 Billionth iTunes song downloaded. Every 100,000 downloads someone will win an iPod nano and a $100 giftcard, with the grand prize being an iMac, 10 iPod (60GB), and $10,000 credit at iTunes. Looks like business is going well for Apple."
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1 Billion iTunes Contest More

1 Billion iTunes Contest

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  • Holy CRAP that's a good prize!

    It's a shame the chances of winning will be so, so slim though.

    Also, it seems kinda daft. What would one person want with ten 60 gig iPods?

  • 10 iPods? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mr. Sketch ( 111112 ) <mister...sketch@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @06:52PM (#14664880)
    I'm curious, what does one do with ten 60GB iPods? It seems that you keep one for yourself and sell the other 9 on eBay. Maybe give some to your friends? Maybe give an iPod to your senator [ipaction.org]?

    It just seems like ten iPods is a lot for one person and will just end up being given away.

  • Entry open to... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kahanamoku ( 470295 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @06:54PM (#14664895)
    Entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

    However, if your zip code isn't 5 digits long, you probably wont receive the prize!

    C'mon Apple, how US-Centric are you?...
    • Hell, even if your zip code IS 5 digits long you probably won't receive the prize. Why do you pre-judge that this is a US-Centric contest, given the list of countries you provided? Apple doesn't care who the winner is, they anticipate that people will buy more stuff(tm) in an attempt to become the winner.

    • "...legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium...

      Hey, last time I checked Australia wasn't part of the United States...! Oh, wait, no - apparently we are now...

    • C'mon Apple, how US-Centric are you?...

      The very next line after the portion you quoted is this: Entrants must enter the Promotion through the iTunes Music Store accessible in your country of residence.
    • Did you get that number from the US version of itunes? If so, you might want to check to see if the various non-US versions might just have a different address form...
    • However, if your zip code isn't 5 digits long, you probably wont receive the prize!
       
      It seems to be possible to enter white space into the ZIP code box and still have it accepted.
    • Entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

      I must have missed the US getting those new states.

      Is this how we are going to raise our kids test scores - annex the countries with the good scores?

  • free entries (Score:5, Informative)

    by HoneyBunchesOfGoats ( 619017 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @06:55PM (#14664909)
    The best part is for those who don't buy into these contests is that you can use the free downloads for entry.

    Um, no. From the Official Rules [apple.com]:
    How To Enter. You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by: 1) downloading a song from iTunes (any music video or other video downloads and any free downloads will be deemed an ineligible entry); or 2) a free alternative means of entry by completing an online entry form available at http://www.apple.com/itunes/1billion/entryform/ [apple.com] (a song download or free online entry will be deemed an "Entry(ies)").

  • Prizes every 3 hours (Score:4, Interesting)

    by evw ( 172810 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @06:55PM (#14664910)
    If you believe the meter running on the above web page, it ran through 1000 songs in 112 seconds. At that rate they give out the 100,000 song prize every 3 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds. However that also means they're 61.425 days away from giving away the grand prize.

  • Dear Winner: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Crowhead ( 577505 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @06:59PM (#14664951)
    Good luck with your taxes in 2007.

    We'll be watching.

    The IRS

    • Thankfully I live in a country with sane tax laws around contest winnings, which are 100% tax free.

      Eligibility. In order to be eligible, entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

  • Hah. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @07:07PM (#14665032) Journal
    (1,699 + (10,000*.99) + (10*399)) *.3 (ballpark) = $4,676.7

    Will Apple provide low interest financing to the winner so that they can pay for the taxes? Otherwise they probably threw in the extra 9 iPods just to make it more prohibitively expensive & hope that the winner can't claim the prize.
    • The 500M contest was the same thing but without the iMac, I am sure the winner claimed the prize.

      The winner could sell most of the iPods and make most of that money back. Basically the contest provides enough audio to fill most of a 60GB unit.

    • Not being from America I have no idea how your tax system works... do you have to pay taxes on all winnings? at what rate would you pay it? and who decides how much a prize is woth (is it its cost price or market value if it were new in a shop - and if so what shop)?
      • I don't know the details either. I'm just pretty sure that such winnings have to be taxed as income, otherwise people might use "contests" to circumvent income tax.
        • in Australia I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay tax on winnings (though I remember something about games of luck vs games of skill having different rules), but the competition itself has to be registered with the relevant authority in each state

      • Re:Hah. (Score:4, Informative)

        by tbone1 ( 309237 ) on Wednesday February 08, 2006 @08:35AM (#14668796) Homepage
        Not being from America I have no idea how your tax system works...

        That's okay, neither do we.

    • Sell the extras. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sfgoth ( 102423 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @08:47PM (#14665836) Homepage Journal
      Otherwise they probably threw in the extra 9 iPods just to make it more prohibitively expensive & hope that the winner can't claim the prize.

      Maybe they threw in the extra 9 iPods so you could sell them on eBay to pay the taxes?

      Or maybe they don't actually care either way.

    • Re:Hah. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by NoStrings ( 622372 )
      Fortunately, those of us in countries other than the U.S. don't necessarily have to pay taxes on winnings. This contest is open to people in Canada who would not have an extra tax burden if they won. (We already pay enough taxes!)
      • I thought that it was only lottery winnings that weren't taxed in Canada. (Although any income that you make on top of the lottery winnings would be taxed as if your lottery winnings were actual income - e.g. lottery winnings put you in top tax bracket, so any income is taxed at top tax bracket rate)

        Could you please provide a link to some relevant info. Thanks.
        • You could be right. I've never actually won anything major, so I'm not 100% sure. I know that the government-run lottery is not taxed. The government already makes tons of cash from the losers. I've heard the lottery described as a "stupidity tax". (I know people who use the lottery as their retirement savings plan.)
    • .3? Thirty percent taxes? Try more like six percent.
    • do u have to pay taxes on the 10k worth of songs? i can understand the rest, but the songs are not a physical gift, and the money never comes to you. it's more like 10k worth of free downloads. of course if they give u a gift card that you can sell, i can understand having to pay taxes on that. if it's just putting a bunch of credits in your account, it would really suck to pay taxes on that. especially if you don't "redeem" all of it.
      • Wow. Do none of you have itemized deductions on your taxes? Do none of you have kids? Do a little math - let's say that you and a spouse (uh, I know that's a stretch for most of you) make the US average $75,000 together, and own a median $215,000 home that you are paying 6% on. You have the typical 2.3 kids (or is it 2.1 kids?). Your tax rate is...2.5%, unless I just did the math wrong. Let's see - 2 kids at $1,000 tax credit each, plus four times the standard deduction, add about $10K in mortgage int

  • Sign of the times (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @07:08PM (#14665042)
    You can tell that iTunes is being embraced by everyone when the top-selling songs are "Grillz" by Nelly, "Shake That" by Eminem and "L.O.V.E." by Ashlee Simpson.
    • Troll nothing, its the sad truth. Shows exactly what a sad state the 'music' industry is in. I wonder how many wonderful artists are hidden away because they dont fit the tight mold it takes to sell millions these days. Just dont SUCK enough to make the cut. Actually, wherever they are, I hope they stay there.

  • Does video downloads count... (Score:4, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @07:09PM (#14665056)
    Does anyone know if video downloads count in this contest? Winning the grand prize while downloading the latest episode of Battlestar Galatica would be awesome!

  • Little-known exception (Score:5, Funny)

    by Carpe PM ( 754778 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @07:16PM (#14665127)
    If the billionth song is a Michael Bolton tune they are skipped and the winner will be the next one.

  • Additional prize... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dr.badass ( 25287 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2006 @09:48PM (#14666215) Homepage
    There's an interesting extra part to the Grand Prize, which isn't listed on the main page:

    In addition, a scholarship will be created by Apple in the name of the Grand Prize winner to a world renowned music institution to be selected by Apple. The scholarship recipient shall receive four (4) years of tuition to a university-level program at the music department of the selected institution. The Grand Prize winner shall not be eligible to receive the scholarship or participate in determining the scholarship recipient. The scholarship shall have no monetary value to the Grand Prize winner. -- Official Rules [apple.com]

  • I was looking through the source code on Apple's 1 Billion dollar site to see if there was a javascript calculator doing the counter, and I found this:

    <p class="sosumi">*No purchase necessary to win. <a href="/itunes/1billion/entryform/">Click here</a> to submit a free entry form.</p>

    Sosumi... mmmmm...
  • How wonderful would it be for the billionth sale to be to someone using Sharp Musique instead of itunes. Would Apple exclude them as the winner for not using the "official" client? Could they?

  • Greasemonkey helper (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ChrisDolan ( 24101 ) <chris+slashdot.chrisdolan@net> on Wednesday February 08, 2006 @05:34PM (#14673372) Homepage
    I created a Firefox Greasemonkey user script that makes it dramatically easier to submit entries to this contest. I explain how to install and use it in Read my blog [chrisdolan.net]

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