How I Spent My Time Getting a Free Song
I spent part of my weekend in search of a classic rock album: Grand Funk Railroad: Greatest Hits. More specifically, one song: “I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home”
I opened up iTunes and did a search, found the song and am greeted with the “Album Only” label, where the BUY SONG button normally is, which means you have to purchase the entire album to get this one song. Bah!
I thought about purchasing the entire album on iTunes (at least it’s an iTunes Plus album, which has removed the DRM), but wanted to check out other options for obtaining the song. Checking my wallet, I found some credits over at Graywhale CD, a local record store. I hop on my scooter and enter the store. “Out of stock” the Emo-looking kid behind the counter told me. I guess I’m not the only one that buys classic rock CDs. Ok… not a problem. I drove down the street to the local f.y.e. Walk into the store, head over to the music section… E… F… G… WTF?? $16?? You’ve got to be shitting me? No deal.
I came home and start thinking of downloading the album from Bit Torrent other places to get this song and remembered that Amazon.com sells MP3s, with no DRM and encoded in a higher bit rate.
Loading up Amazon in the browser, I do a search and found the song
“I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home”. Nice. And it was only 89 cents. But then I see that I can use 5 Pepsi Stuff points to get this song. Sweet. Checking balance…. 3 points…. damn! That means I either need to go to the store and purchase two Pepsis (at a cost of $1.50 each) or have an 89 cents charge on my credit card.
At this point, i’m now too involved in trying to get this for free that I start Google searching to see if I can find any way of getting Pepsi Stuff points without spending any money. After trying several codes that were posted on public forums, I find a post that links to the Pepsi Recycling web site.
After answering a few easy questions, I am presented with 6 Pepsi Stuff points sent to my email. I enter the codes, click the Pepsi Stuff purchase button and download the song [NOTE: you have to download the Amazon MP3 Downloader, which is actually very easy to use and seamless with iTunes]. All said and done, it took a lot longer than I expected to get this one song. But hey, in the end, it was free [if you don’t count my time, the gas I used in the scooter to drive to two stores and all of the frustration in trying to locate some extra Pepsi points].
I admit that this Pepsi Stuff promotion is not all that bad. Trade points for music, products and other stuff on Amazon.com. Simple to redeem as were the three points I had previously accumulated in emails I received from Pepsi. I also know Wayne collects Pepsi Stuff points and seems to like the promotion. But to be honest, I don’t think I’m going to make any regular efforts to seek out more points. Five points for one song, if you are getting your points from drinking single-serving Pepsi, is not a great deal, financially speaking. Although if I do find myself with another 5 points, I will find another song to download… for free, of course.
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or you could have called me and I could have emailed you the song…..
I don’t like pepsi so much but hooray for free stuff.
I am laughing that you went to so much effort for it though.
Holy Shit I think you ate my husband for breakfast…..he is ALL about the free stuff. I truly believe his manhood is completely attached to his ability to say, “it took 36 hours of websearch, but I found it for free….”. And don’t even get me started on the coupons. Let’s just say, no coupon = no lunch, end of story. He says I’ll appreciate someday.
kris – Yeah, that’s true. I need to remember that next time before I do a two hour google search
tori – I know… after I did this, I had to laugh at myself as well. I mean, there’s a long list of productive things I have to do that could have been accomplished… but hey, free song. 😉
beth – LOL…. I used to a do a lot of the free sites and all that… got some pretty cool things like a Mac mini, several iPods, games, gift cards. But I have scaled back A LOT… and while I do tend to have some coupons for eating out, it’s not a stop gap if I don’t. So I may have coughed up some of your husband, part of him is still in there… 😉
That’s quite some way to get a free song. Next time I could just sing it for you – cos obviously that would be just as good – right? ;o)
penelope – Not just as good but even better. Can you belt out “I’m getting closer to your home…”??
Yup I love the points, but for me it is a way to convert a habitual purchase into more… I drink a lot of pepsi and coke. Coke points I send to Avi and PepsiStuff I collect. I haven’t redeemed anything yet but I will someday soon.
Thanx for the linkage.
whall – I’ve been doing the Coke points whenever I drink a Coke, Powerade or another Coke product. I’ve not done anything with them yet. Maybe I will send future points to Avi.
Every time I’ve tried to buy songs on the net, it’s been a pain in the ass. I should try amazon!
kilax – Even with iTunes? iTunes is pretty easy, unless you don’t have an iPod. Then getting songs to another player can be difficult. Amazon is pretty easy and they have some better choices/options for getting a single song.
Too much work for me. LOL And I don’t like Pepsi. I woulda just asked a friend (Limewire) for it. Heh.
winter – I agree, it was a lot of work for one song. I think it’s been years since I’ve used Limewire.
Damn, dude, that’s a lot of work for an 89-cent song.
karl – Yep, it was. Sometimes my determination equates to “tripping over a dollar to save a dime” In this case, I figured I waste enough time on Google, I might as well get something out of it.
I have the odd song or two in my collection so send me an email the next time you find yourself hunting this hard for something and I’ll see what I can do 😉
kevin – Will do. Between you and breakaway, I won’t have to waste time hunting for one of those odd songs.