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98 Comments
- dyslexicsUNTIED, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10For those too lazy to spend 30 seconds for a free subscription...
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.
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.
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.
At one point Mr. Ostrovsky, who lives in West Bloomfield, Mich., went to an Apple store to look at iMacs. "Everyone there knew who I was, too," he said. "It's just surreal."
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.
"My sister has already called from New York to talk about divvying it up," he said, "and I'll probably buy some music for friends."
But he will also buy more for himself. Until now, Mr. Ostrovsky has not been a frequent user of the iTunes store. "I've downloaded maybe 50 songs, but I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends," he said. "I'm certainly going to download more songs now."
That would certainly be music to Apple's ears. - bryan8m, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"...I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends."
The RIAA has located its newest target. - lazyguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends," he said"
Dumbass. Now the RIAA is onto him!
He ADMITTED that he borrows CDs to rip. GET HIM!!1 - stratmancj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=www.nytimes.com
- shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you guys were true digg readers you wouldn't be complaining about sites that require registration. Bugmenot.com cuts down login times to sites that require registration to less than a second, especially if you have the Firefox plugin. Digg is about being on the bleeding edge of technology, and if you can't keep up or adapt then you'll be left behind scratching your head.
- cathode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can not think of a worse use of 10,000
- WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Congratulations!
You are among the first one hundred diggers to read this comment!
You have been awarded a gift certificate worth $10,000 in free movies, music, and software of your choice.
Just use bit torrent to collect your prizes!
Haa Ha! - iBrent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=25468805
There's his MySpace....
With the 10g, I'd wait until the next countdown and just buy, buy, buy and try to win again, lol. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1But he will also buy more for himself. Until now, Mr. Ostrovsky has not been a frequent user of the iTunes store. "I've downloaded maybe 50 songs, but I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends," he said. "I'm certainly going to download more songs now."
Hey Alex what about that Limewire tray icon?
rofl - Orangutan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Reported as lame for the NY Times link. Don't waste our time like that, and please don't support that kind of registration crap."
are you saying you dont support the NY Times? cuz thats a high quality establishement. any regestration process is BS but the NY Times is awesome - MakinBacon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Seriously? He has to pay taxes on his winnings? Man the U.S. sucks. Here in Canada you do not pay any taxes on winnings - that includes prizes, casinos, giveaways, lotteries...whatever. You win it, it's ALL YOURS!
- jinster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"Know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay!"
- shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How hard is it to log in to a site these days? 1 minute registration? 1 second with bugmenot in firefox? Please stop complaining. Log in and registration, not matter how lame it is, is prevalent on the Internet. Get used to it.
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Add it all up, and that's about $16,000 of stuff - Meaning he'll owe about $4,000 in taxes on it, LOL.
- PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@"all the prizes are just Apple products"
I'll take all the extra Apple products you don't want, kalphegor…
@"Anyways, is that a $10,000 itunes gift card or a hardware gift card?
Because that would be sweet if it was the latter but gay if it's the former."
It's the former. I'm sure he would have preferred a $10,000 hardware gift card, as would I, but Apple has to überpromote the iTMS somehow. And come on, an iMac for the dude? You have infinite numbers of computers, Apple, give the kid a quad core G5 (or prerelease quad 6GHz MacBox Pro), a few 30" displays, and 8GB of RAM! - CaptainChad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Taxes, taxes, taxes...
The one thing they never mention in these types of articles is the fact that his winnings are taxable. Wonder how he's going to manage that one, especially since he won't be able to declare himself (I'm assuming his parents will still declare him as a dependent). This means that everything over $5000 is taxable at 10%. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I live in NY, so i didnt need to make an account
- hiredgun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I was always more likely to borrow CD's from my friends"
LOL. This ***** is getting sued... - mojotek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I thought you needed to be 18 to collect prizes like that... But I guess it wasn't a contest, so that type of legaleze doesn't really apply.
- mlipovsky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This kids lives like 10 min away from me. i'm going to see if he'll buy me an ipod... lol yea right! but who knows.
- thelastknowngod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i honestly wonder if that was the 1 billionth song sold. i wonder if apple doesnt pick and choose that they think is ok which is around 1 billion just so it fits their standards. i honestly think that if the real 1billionth song sold was something like "Alter of Sacrifice" by Slayer we would never have known it because its not something apple wants to accociate itself with.
dont get me wrong im a huge apple fan boy but sometimes you have to wonder how much of what they feed you is actually the truth. - stoavio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For the people that are bashing the *FREE* prizes for spending $0.99: keep that crap to yourselves. When's the last time you spent a dollar and received $14,000.00+ in prizes? *****, I would've been happy with 1 free iPod (even though I already own a 5g).
Some of your comments are r e a l l y lame - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Why is it that the person who won always wins downloading some ***** song. For the millionth wasnt it like Sheryl Crowe or some ***** like that."
Because the iTMS is all RIAA-protected stuff like top 10 crap. Independent music can be found (and even purchased) without the DRM from somewhere that isn't the iTMS. - Dan™, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I totally bought a song at like 11:30 or 12 that night...
- Quantic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why is it that the person who won always wins downloading some ***** song. For the millionth wasnt it like Sheryl Crowe or some ***** like that.
- noghead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You would think there would be a better prize for being having the billionth song bought. Not to say the prize is not any good, its great, but comon. 1 iMac; thats good but why not a G5? Then there are10 ipods? Ok, one is cool but....there are 9 more, big deal most people already have ipods anyways. Yeah i know you can give them away but thats GIVING them away. unless you sell it, which is meh, selling a prize just doesnt feel right. Then there is the 10,000 gift cirtificate...big deal this guy sounds like he would have pirated all the music he wanted anyways. I just feel apple could have done more, given something unique or once in a life time offer. Like a personal tour around apple headquarters with steve jobs. Thats more along the lines of a prize than stuff anyone can buy at a store.
- lazyguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0omgness.
$10000 + $400*10 + $2000 = $16000
= 1600 tax? - iamdravenman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Okay, so he is automatically a pirate because he admits to _borrowing_ cds from friends? He didn't actually make the slip and say _rip_ my friends' cds, did he?
Some of you guys just complain to complain. He won, you didn't. Get over it.
The estimated $1,600 in taxes. Hmmmm. I wouldn't complain. $.99 to $16,000 in one click.
Seriously. - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone else notice his name? "Alex Ostrovsky" >> Russian
Probably balked at the $10G iTMS certificate. He's Russian, probably preferred one for AllofMP3. - manoftheisland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0well the 10k of iTMS money will be good b/c they are starting to sell other things like iPod on it... if he didnt want to spend it all on music then he could just sell the ipods he bought on iTMS.
- MikeCampo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What a lucky punk. I would have sold the iPods and bought a new PC.
- chickenman316, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow thats an awesome prize! I can't believe the people on here that say it is a stupid prize, and the $10,000 iTMS card is worthless. If someone gives me that card, I sure as hell am going to use it. Hell, they could have given me the smallest ipod Nano and I would have been super excited, cause its FREE
- briangig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I am a bit surprised that they let someone under 18 win the prize. Usually they have to be an adult. But he is one lucky kid for sure!"
I was gonna post the same thing...I wanna know how he wins this.. - Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I thought a prize wasn't taxable if the winner didn't know they were in a contest.
- ByteGuerilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"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."
***** me, that's one hell of a prize. - diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He's very lucky. I wish I had an iMac and all those rewards!
- ndm007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"...The RIAA has located its newest target."
lmao - tehaeolus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0West Bloomfield didn't need more money. They are pretty damn rich already. Oh well.
- cadpo76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Have all the whiners truly never heard of bugmenot? It's even a FF extension...
- brewer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1^^"Reported as a Bad Link
(subscription required)""
For you maybe. Clicked it, read it. - Tenzin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0my FF extension stopped working
- Morph_Ball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"pretty lame prize.."
Oh yeah, totally~
[/sarcasm] - techlinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I was like. :o Lucky guy. Then I got to the part where he is on;y 16 and was like?! WTF? I HATE YOU!
:P I'm 16 too. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I too wouldn't know what to buy with a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Past a certain point you could run out of ideas of what to buy and the risk of buying crap songs runs high... I wouldn't know what to do except divvy it up.
- GuineaPig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He basically admitted to illegal behavior.
I'm sure that the RIAA will settle all legal actions against him in exchange for his prize winnings. - graywolf323, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I kinda hope he does get sued by RIAA it would just be ironic and funny
- tafty86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I am a bit surprised that they let someone under 18 win the prize. Usually they have to be an adult. But he is one lucky kid for sure!
- JaggedEdge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Apparently i need to put more work torwards my time machine....so i can go back and get me some sweet ass ***** gear, what a lucky sonuvabitch
- mlerner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0use the username and password "bugmenot"
- dmoney06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yea seriously
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