Dang it, no edit ability...

That is supposed to be horse before apple cart.. in the previous statement. Some how it got dyslexified in my noodle case.

If you get an ipod mini, standard, or shuffle, get used to itunes. There are some other 3rd party programs, but yeah you'll have to install some proggy TO UPLOAD AND SYNC your music to your ipod. You can also note those do not take advantage of the features itunes has, (note smart playlists are awesome). The store works through itunes for easier access to it's users, though I can agree it should probably work without itunes as well, but obviously apple is doing this like anyone else, to get you to do this for a reason. The reason is, you guessed it, to use their stuff; thats more like a promotion than a scam. And itunes the program needs the itunes service, and I believe by default puts in an ipod service in too, but quicktime is bundled with itunes. You get one, you get the other. I don't think you have the right to complain too much about getting something free, since it all works, and you can delete the apps in the end anyway; say..keep it until the end of the contest. Unlike microsofts free music which had locked files and it had the quality of a cd that was sitting in your backseat for 3 months while driven down gravel roads for 6 hours a day. Besides, that bottle of pepsi would be 1.50, free song or not...

What will really shine you over though, is when you download the song in aac format

It's an itunes promotion so why is it surprising that you have to install itunes to get your song. I have used iTunes for a while now, and I have gotten songs from this promotion. Aside from the cost of the drink, this is totally free.

I never thought of it that way... probably because I have iTunes on my computer anyway.

I uninstalled itunes - it leaks to much memory and can't do even half of what WMP can.

Besides - Dell makes a awesome MP3 player and guess what? It's cheap!

Face it, the iPod is THE cadillac of mp3 players. And although I still use Winamp as my default media player, iTunes is one of the best programs to file and organize music. And besides, the fact of the matter is: this is a PROMOTION. Apple is PROMOTING iTunes by giving away "free" songs. I find it amusing when people who can't afford and iPod,or don't want to fork over the paper for one, they belittle it's abilities or preach how another company's mp3 player is superior AND cheaper. ~~ A Porshe?! who want's a Porshe! No cup holders, crowded seating, too expensive, besides Ford makes a great car... yeah it's called a Fiesta. C'mon..... you know you want a Porshe!

I never said I didn't want an Ipod - or belittle it in any way. I can afford one but would rather just get something cheaper. Each to his own.

What does winamp do that itunes doesn't?

I'm sorry, but I see it as realy wrong. You get a free song and a chance to enter a contest on a Pepsi bottle... Why should you have to download any crappy software?
Ok, maybe I can see having to download that software if it was just for the song, since the song could be made in a iTunes-only format. But then again, you shouldn't HAVE to, there could be a suggested download link: We suggest using iTunes for listening to this song... or something like that. But the contest? Come on...

...and god forbid that you buy a powerball ticket and have to go to a store, or gas station to get it. Then have to watch tv on a cable service you pay for to see what the winning numbers are while having to wait through the commercials telling you to buy more stuff like a good little tax paying, merchandise consuming citizen, or buy a newspaper and scan through all the ad's. All that just to play the lottery? How dare they! Or you could listen to the radio and if you're the 100th caller you win free concert tickets, but "oh teh noes" it's long distance and I have to call on the telephone I paid 20 bucks for at wal-mart, on a long distance plan from at&t at 20 cents a minute and get put on hold while listening to a word from their sponsors?

Anyway you must have the iTunes program to acces the music store, and the music you download isn't compatible ONLY with iTunes, but I think if it were people would have a far bigger reason to cry. It makes about as much sense to me as someone whining that they have to install the bittorrent program to "download their free crap" from it. The iPod contest is a sub contest anyway, not the main draw, and Winamp will play any music downloaded from iTunes in case anyone wondered.

If one out of 3 iTunes downloads got you a free 20oz Pepsi, could you bicker that you couldn't get a Coke? Until you lay out any money for the song, it's free, even if you have to use their free software to get the free song. Bottom line is, 20oz Pepsi products cost exactly what it did before the contest started, so if one of the bottles you buy says "you win a song", use it or don't, it's not like you got jipped out of something you didn't pay for. Anyway iTunes isn't a website it's a program, it's not like they're denying you access to the site, there isn't one. Thats the only thing that bothers me in their description, is it says on the bottle, "go to itunes.com" and download one free song, when in fact, there isn't an itunes.com to download music from.

But to enter the ipod contest you have to download a song by entering that code in, otherwise you could just spam it to death, since it's not run on even odds it's based on how much you participate. So you need the code, you need to register, and if you win the ipod, guess what program you're probably going to need to get used to...ITUNES. Besides you can always uninstall it at your leisure, and if it bothers you all THAT much, feel free to email the code to me or someone else not too lazy to spend 2 extra minutes to get a song I don't have to pay for. Hell, you could try selling the caps on ebay if you're bored enough.

You're talking different things there. ITunes is a product, whether it's free or not is irrelevant. It's force-feeding people to install the product in order to get the "free" song and enter the contest. Try this one for size: you get your lotery ticket and it tells you to go to XYZ's web site to see if you won. Once there you realise you have to install ThemeXP to see if you've won. How wrong is that? Anyway, I just see it as an unethical practice. Legal maybe, but unethical.
BTW: I don't care about this specific contest in general, I don't even think they have that promo up here in iglooland. And if they had it, I wouln't even be interested, neither by the free song nor by the contest. I'm just commenting it as a general practice. Forcing your product down people's throat is wrong.

What does winamp do that itunes doesn't?

Winamp can play videos, has a video streaming network of its own (Shoutcast), can play more kinds of audio file types than iTunes, and offers plugins and the ability to skin it. Plus it doesn't install Quicktime with it and doesn't make you manually turn off iPodService.exe.

That said, where are you buying a 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi for $1.50? I think the bigger issue would be finding you a place to buy Pepsi at reasonable prices.

WMP does a bit more than WinAMP...

No ones forced to even look under the cap. The concept works on buying the drink, not buying a song. If you just wanted the song this would be pointless since the songs are 99 cents and the drink is generally over a dollar, and 1 outta 3 to win is 99 cents vs 3 bucks per song, bad ratio to me. It's not like they bought the song and then had to download iTunes. They bought the drink not the song, and if they choose to, get to download it at their will if they care to, have the time, the patience, or just remember to not throw away or misplace that little cap.

With your example and what is going on here it's more like getting a lottery ticket BECAUSE you purchased 20 dollars or more worth of gas, not buying the ticket/song outright, then having to go to xyz's site and install themexp or whatnot.

You neither buy the song nor the ticket, you buy the gas or the pepsi, and as a bonus you can mess with the extra stuff if you want, but at no time is it forced, it's just an extra option available and you have to follow whatever guidlines or rules there are if you want to claim your "winnings."

Doesn't seem like a big deal to me I guess, it's not like apple isn't a trusted company, or is wanting you to download some harmful proggy or putting spyware in it. And it's not like a ton of people don't already have and use this one, not to mention it's not just PC people getting this stuff, and every mac comes with iTunes installed.

I can see not liking it, but I can't see how anyone feels like this is some kind of grand evil scandal.

Its real easy to understand I'd think, Apple has a program for playing, burning, and ripping music, it also has a music store built into it. They decide one day to do a contest to allow free music downloads and voila, here it is. They're not saying to download music from our site you must also install our program. THERE IS NO SITE AND NEVER HAS BEEN. Since iTunes came out the only way to access the store has always been through the program, and it should come as no surprise that it is still this way since this exact same contest ran a few months back and worked no differently than it does now.

No one is being denied access to download from itunes or apples site, it doesn't exist, never has, probably never will. iTunes works exactly as it always has, and that means downloading music through the proggy like it was designed, because the store itself is a part of the program period, take it or leave it I say.