McDonald's 1 Billion Song Promotion... A Go? - MacRumors
Skip to Content

McDonald's 1 Billion Song Promotion... A Go?

Martin Bandier, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing, spoke at EMI's Interim Results 2003 Conference today.

Starting at 38 minutes into the webcast, Mr. Bandier speaks of EMI's performance over this past year, and goes on to discuss the growth of legal music download services such as Apple's iTunes. On future performance, he notes:


    "... but there is real potential for the future especially when PepsiCola makes a commitment to giveaway up to 100 million downloads and Mcdonald's commits to 1 billion in download giveaways as part of a promotional campaign."

The New York Post first reported that McDonald's was close to announcing a 1 billion iTunes song giveaway. While McDonald's had no deal to announce at the time, we subsequently received confirmation that the deal was in the works.

While it is possible the comments may simply be reflective of the circulating rumors, it seems likely that EMI's CEO would be privy to such knowledge and that he would be unlikely to make comments at a financial conference based on unfounded rumors.

Related Forum: Mac Apps

Popular Stories

Aston Martin CarPlay Ultra Screen

Apple Says CarPlay Ultra is Coming to These Vehicle Brands

Thursday May 21, 2026 11:53 am PDT by
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon. In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. CarPlay Ultra...
Apple Event Logo

Apple to Release These 15 New Products Later This Year

Friday May 22, 2026 6:36 am PDT by
April and May have been relatively slow months for Apple this year, but there is a lot to look forward to heading into WWDC 2026 and beyond. Apple is expected to release at least 15 more products later this year, with some of them held up until the more personalized version of Siri launches. Beyond the usual annual updates to iPhones and Apple Watches in September, Apple's all-new smart...
MacBook Pro Low Angle Wide Lens 2

MacBook Pro OLED Display Production Clears Key Hurdle

Thursday May 21, 2026 1:41 am PDT by
Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro models have cleared a major manufacturing hurdle, with panel supplier Samsung Display having reportedly achieved yields above 90 percent on its Gen 8.6 OLED production line. According to Korean publication The Elec, some individual process stages are now reaching yields as high as 95 percent, a level that the display industry considers "golden yield" territory ...