When the big ITunes/PepsiCo promotion kicked off on Sunday during the Super Bowl, independent music advocacy group Downhill Battle also launched a promotion of their own, one aimed at taking some of Pepsi"s dollars away from the major music labels. They"re calling it Tune Recycler; Downhill Battle will use it to take some of the unwanted winning codes from among the 100 million being given away and use them to buy "quality music from honest independent labels," according to group member Holmes Wilson.
"When you buy major label music on iTunes," Wilson explains, "the musician usually gets nothing, because they"re in perpetual debt to their label until they sell more than 500,000 CDs. And at best they only get 8 to 14 cents on a $1.00 song. We want to get some of Pepsi"s money going to actual musicians, not just record label CEOs and RIAA lawyers." But why would you want to give away a winning code? Maybe you don"t have an account with the ITunes Music Store and don"t want to bother setting one up just to download a single song. Or perhaps you agree with Downhill Battle"s mission and want to donate to their cause.