“It may well have been the best 99 cents Alex Ostrovsky ever spent. Early yesterday, he paid that amount to download ‘Speed of Sound,’ a song on the Coldplay album ‘X&Y,’ from the iTunes Music Store, the Internet music shop that Apple Computer started less than three years ago,” Claudia H. Deutsch reports for The New York Times. “He did not know it, but it was the billionth song the site had sold, and Apple was not about to let that go unnoticed.”
“So at 12:45 a.m., Mr. Ostrovsky’s phone rang. It was an Apple employee, telling him that in addition to the song, Apple was giving him a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store. It is even establishing a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name,” Deutsch reports. “Mr. Ostrovsky, 16, was still trying to absorb it all yesterday. His phone had been ringing all day, alternating between reporters wanting to know his reaction and friends wanting to congratulate him.”
Deutsch reports, “He has pretty concrete ideas about how he will use the prizes, though. The iMac stays with him — ‘I’d been asking my parents for a new computer for a while, so this was a dream come true,’ he said. He will keep an iPod, and family and friends will get the rest. But the $10,000 gift card has him a bit flummoxed.”
Full article here.
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“flummoxed”?
Why not “Ravished” or “Bumfuzzled”?
“flummoxed”?
The Complete U2 will make a slight dent in the gift voucher.
I would be a bit flummoxed as well!!!
What, the 500,000,000th download gets a call From his Highness and the 1,000,000,000th gets a call from “an Apple employee”? WTF?!?!
I would have traded 5 of those iPods for call from SJ (well, maybe 3).
use the 10,000 card to buy ipods; sell them on ebay; use the money to buy a macbook pro.
He was completely flummoxed by the 10,000 song gift card?
As in perplex greatly; bewilder by the 10,000 song gift card.
Or how about, I don’t know of 10,000 songs that I want.
the lucky fool. ugh.
Wow, just think of all the Weird Al songs you could get!
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Maybe the Apple Employee was Steve Jobs? I mean, he does work for Apple, right? I bet the kid didn’t know who he was.
I hope his parents buy the taxes for him!
Got a problem learning something new?
Just hold Command option D and mouse over the word, you’ll learn something.
you can buy iPods through the music store now. That’s what I’d buy if I were him.
Jimbo – I had no idea – you’re a Weird Al fan? Who’d a thunk it…
See how easily Apple can reach out and touch you, doesn’t that scare people a bit?
If the RIAA put the screws to Apple, Apple could turn over all records of what Mp3’s people had on their machines.
After all the “iTMS mini store” reports on what you have right right now.
“It’s a feature”
Hahahaha
MacDude, great suggestion, but it’s control, command D, but hey, I can’t type in my previous post…
you know how I know he’s gay?
He listens to coldplay.
^^^^ Hahahahaha. I’m so glad someone else was thinking that. Kelly Clarkson!
You don’t need the D. Just hilite the word, then control+option+click the word.
you can buy iPods through the music store now. That’s what I’d buy if I were him.
OK, he just got 10 free ones. Do you expect him to become a profitable Apple Reseller buying them at retail?
Hrm I don’t think he has to file taxes as he’s 16 but I could be wrong.. Also sell that card on ebay for a profit .. hello car or college fund
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MDN, what the hell are you doing advertising MSN Music??
Turd,
Yes it would be profitable. His cost is zero
Here’s a thought:
If the winner of the billionth download contest was a no-purchase-necessary entry, what kind of headline would that make in the papers? The first question everyone asks is “what song was it?” I think it’s likely that if an NPN won, that during the congratulatory call, the Apple employee would get the winner to download a free song, perhaps on of the 10,000, and claim is was the winning download. It would just sound better during all those interviews if he could give a song title and play it for them, rather than talk about how he filled in his daily limit of 25 NPN entries, and one of them was the billionth.
when you hold down ctrl + command + D you get an instant definition… when you right click (ctrl + click) a highlighted word, you open Dictionary.. an extra step, but still sweet.
One thing’s for sure, the guy’s name sounds much better attached to a music grant than mine ever would. The Ostrovsky/Apple scholarship has a darn nice ring to it. Apple please send the boy a core-duo iMac unless he request otherwise too. Oh, and happy birthday Mr. Steve, one billion songs..wow! Congrats to all!