Mercedes-Benz giving away FREE iTunes?

Well, not exactly.

But they are giving away free MP3's!

Get yours now at www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape

Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape: Successful launch for free music download

Over 500,000 downloads in four weeks

Second compilation now available at http://www3.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape/

Internet project supports up-and-coming musicians

Mixed Tape, Mercedes-Benz's free music download, is enjoying great popularity. In the first four weeks following their release, the songs at www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape were downloaded more than half a million times. The first compilation from the automobile manufacturer, Mixed Tape 01, provided an appealing assortment of songs in MP3 format for free. Now Mixed Tape 02, with 15 great new songs, is available online.
Mercedes-Benz sets standards with fascinating and innovative automobiles, but that’s not all. We are now also offering customers and other interested parties pioneering new media services as well - ones that complement Mercedes-Benz perfectly," said Lothar Korn, head of Global Advertising for Mercedes-Benz cars at DaimlerChrysler AG. "The overwhelming interest in Mixed Tape shows that high-quality entertainment captures the spirit of our mobile society."

Mercedes-Benz's aim with the new music platform is to encourage talented young artists. Up-and-coming musicians can submit their songs online via www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape to be judged by the Mixed Tape music editorial staff. So far, many German and international artists have taken advantage of this opportunity. Every musician whose song manages to make it into the group of finalists is featured online.

The latest version, Mixed Tape 02, is the second in a series of four compilations for 2004. The new online album offers an extraordinary mixture of international artists, hailing from Vienna to Detroit. Musically, it runs the gamut from hip-hop and ballads to cool jazz and urban pop. This latest compilation features an exclusive preview song from Hungarian singer Erik Sumo, who will be releasing his solo debut, ‘My Rocky Mountain’, in the autumn. Listeners may choose all the songs on Mixed Tape 02 or select individual titles. The songs can be retrieved either via data streaming or by download and may be legally burnt onto CD-ROM or recorded onto an MP3 player.

What's more, www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape offers numerous additional functions, such as a cover and title generator. Users can download and print the current cover for their personal Mercedes-Benz audio CD and the selected titles. They can also send the cover motif or a link to the selected piece of music to others via an e-card. Volume control and convenient user-friendly operating modes for the audio player ensure optimal sound results on the Internet. An e-mail newsletter gives interested users information about the music featured in the next edition of Mixed Tape.

BobW - 8/27/2004 3:49:54 PM

+1 Boost

if you can't build decent quality into your cars, deflect everyone's attention with music downloads. What next, free sci-fi movies?
What does MP3 music downloads have to do with their cars? Do they think the same people downloading the free music will next pour into the showroom, excuse me, Mercedes-Benz Retail Centers, and buy the youth oriented products displayed there? After all, the twenty-something getting free music is a perfect candidate for a Mercedes-Benz, right. Right?
Who are the ninnies in marketing who came up with this brilliant idea, and how long before there's a help wanted sign out in front of M-B marketing department to replace every-stupid-one-of-them?
Benz needs to get their heads out of the sand if they are going to succeed in this century. And the first order of business, just before free MP3 downloads, is QUALITY!
Just my two-cents.
BW

Threepoint1415926 - 8/30/2004 4:22:37 PM

+1 Boost

It is to my understanding that because Mercedes has such a wonderful marketing team, they’ve released this music. In part, the overwhelming response from the latest marketing campaign connecting cars with their drivers and owners, Mercedes was bombarded with music requests from their TV spots and such. You’re right, the people who download free music simply because it doesn’t cost anything aren’t the Mercedes target market. However, it is due to some complaints of customer service that it would be folly to completely ignore customers and potential customers requests, especially for a request so simple to accomplish. Furthermore, to charge for this music would underpin the very reason why complaints to Mercedes are made, so I see no other way around it. Prima fascia, this only looks like an absurd marketing tactic, but when more closely examined it has all the right backings. To complain about Mercedes customer service, as some have done, and then complain about this seems self contradictory and nearly hypocritical. This is a low cost option for Mercedes to show some sort of dedication, though I admit a not very powerful. It does not reflect monetary diversion from any engineer working there. Quality is a top concern at Mercedes this go around, and they have been working on that issue in full force with new models. I hardly see free music as a diversion from problems at hand.

Jon-Michael

BobW - 8/31/2004 1:12:22 PM

+1 Boost

If in fact as you state the free music is a response by people to M-B advertising, than bravo for Benz to offer it free of charge, you're right it is a good move. However, if M-B thinks this is a valid response to customer complaints (about their cars I assume you mean) then it is an attempt to divert. A valid response to a customer complaint is not free music, it's correcting problems in an expeditious manner. Mercedes-Benz is in a difficult position of having buyers with very high expectations of quality and sometimes a customer over reacts to a minor problem, but at the heart of M-B's problems lies serious quality issues, seemingly unresponsive dealers and a corporate culture of denial. Moreover, Benz has "been working on that issue in full force with new models" for more than a decade with no quantitative or qualitative results to show for it. When will these "new models" with higher quality appear on the market? I've heard every CEO since the early-nineties make those claims, and yet one new model after another shows up with quality issues that Benz assured us were taken care of (and often with some creative new problems).
This is the very reason I finally quit selling M-B's after 15 years of increasingly disgruntled owners, many of whom left the brand for something, anything, else that wouldn't have them visiting the dealership regularly (it became embarrassing to regularly address quality issues with customers). Don't get me wrong, I thing M-B's are special cars, the structure, engineering, refinement are peerless, they are extraordinary cars; they just break down far too often. And not niggly problems, but serious things: transmissions, steering racks, premature engine wear, transfer cases, engine management, electronics...tell me when to stop. I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong at some point, I'm critical to the point of steering people away from the brand in hopes that Benz will see their falling fortunes and act to turn things around.
In the mean time, turn the music up, maybe you won't notice you Mercedes-Benz falling apart around you.
BW
PS-Lest you BMW/Audi/Porsche pilots, are laughing up your sleeves at M-B's problems, you're all members of the same quality club, check the JD Powers results-BW