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”

Closer To Home – Grand Funk Railroad

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.

Pepsi Stuff

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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