Filed under: iTS, Tips and tricks, Apple, Deals
Free iTunes song for UK SMS users
Alan dropped a quick note about a chance for our UK readers to get a free iTunes song. Those of you overseas may have been complaining that Apple treats you like second class citizens, but Britons, worry not, because they're bribing you with a song. Send an SMS with the words "ROCK," "POP," "LIVE," or "ITUNES" to 85100, and Apple will send you back a code for a free song on the iTunes UK store.The promotion ends on September 30th, so you've got to get it done quick, and this is definitely a YMMV situation. It won't work outside of the UK, and I even tried to send the code using iChat, but no dice -- apparently it has to come from a phone number there. It's not exactly free, either -- as you may have figured out, it's actually the cost of sending and receiving an SMS. If that's more than £0.99, it's not worth it.
But if you're in the UK and have an itchy SMS finger, send it along and see what happens.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
steven Haskayne said 9:38AM on 9-28-2007
It certainly works, just redeemed my free song. How great, however, us brits are still treated like the distant cousin, where is our Starbucks promotion, where are our movies in itunes??
Alas this month we finally had tv shows, but even still that was a poor effort if im honest.
Apple was going on about "worldwide release" for the ipod touch, however we still can't pick one up yet, and we always seem to be months behind the US.
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nosebag said 9:38AM on 9-28-2007
I did this a couple of days ago, and sure enough, I got a free song credit. I hear from some of the UK bargain forums that this may already have expired though due to appearing on one of the UK's biggest money saving websites - www.moneysavingexpert.com
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eat said 9:56AM on 9-28-2007
Still works as of 14:55 (BST).
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Jose said 9:59AM on 9-28-2007
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't those texts to short numbers cost money? :D
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Kishen said 9:59AM on 9-28-2007
anyone know the cost of the SMS?
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Ganza said 10:02AM on 9-28-2007
And let the SMS spam begin...
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Fraser Drew said 10:02AM on 9-28-2007
Jose, the texts to short numbers don't necessarily cost extra, normally just your usual 10/12p :D
Can't confirm it, as i'm on pay monthly, but from the T's and C's it's just your usual rate, so text away! should be open till midnight tonight
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Chris said 10:19AM on 9-28-2007
Cost me nothing, I get hundreds of free texts. Who pays to receive texts anyway? It will cost anyone 15p max.
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mungler said 10:27AM on 9-28-2007
amusingly, when they started this, they forgot to put a limit on it. i know people who got 15 free songs this way.
unfortunately, they'd fixed it by the time i had 5 ;)
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Dav-id said 10:33AM on 9-28-2007
It cost me I ~15p on Orange PAYG
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Reovox said 10:40AM on 9-28-2007
I got 10 songs out of this - tried lastnight via skype, nothing back. tried from my phone, nothing back. looks like they found me out! booooo!
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Nick said 11:48AM on 9-28-2007
My code included a smiley emoticon. How the hell do I put that into the code redeem box!?
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Eturuia said 12:28PM on 9-28-2007
NB the texts need to be sent before midnight on 28/9 (TODAY!), the codes then can be redeemed until 30/9.
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Evan Lugh said 1:29PM on 9-28-2007
Working as of 18:30!
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Sam said 1:36PM on 9-28-2007
@1 (steven): I managed to get a 16gig touch from Comet on Wednesday, but they are indeed in short supply - I'm in Plymouth and the closest place that had them, when the guy checked the system, was Torquay which is 40 miles away. I ended up paying for it in Plymouth and getting the train to Torquay to pick it up! I'd suggest getting it from Comet if you can - the guy I spoke to was very helpful, but not only that they're doing half-price iTunes gift cards when you buy one, which just about offset my travel costs!
As for the text thing, that still works, I just got a free code. It's worth noting that the text you send will come out of any text allowance you have - but the reply will be charged as out of allowance, I believe, but only because it'd probably be a so called "reverse charge" text message.
Sam
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Jonathan Dann said 2:47PM on 9-28-2007
I saw this a few week ago on some random channel and have been building my collection all month! It really does only cost the text price (I rang orange to verify)
I've bought so many, just keep texting! Never thought to send it in to tuaw.
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Mat said 5:55AM on 9-29-2007
Where was it promoted? I live in the UK and never saw any adverts for this promotion.
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Matthew said 6:01AM on 9-29-2007
where was it being originally promoted? I've not seen any adverts for this promotion.
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Daniel said 7:11AM on 9-29-2007
Not getting anything back from the text I sent 10 minutes ago :(
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