McDonald’s/Rock Band Promo – 8 Songs Discounted to 80pts

Along the same lines as the previous post, thanks to Mike C for pointing out the fact there the McDonald’s/Rock Band promotion that went on last month that dropped several songs to 80pts ($1) was still in effect.

According to Shacknews:

Marking the third promotional campaign to feature Rock Band downloadable content this week, developer Harmonix and fast-food eatery McDonald’s have teamed up to offer cheaper downloads of select songs across the next month.

Beginning today, the cost of two individual Rock Band tracks will be temporarily lowered to 80 Microsoft Points ($1), down from the average asking price of 160 Microsoft Points ($2). The promotion will run for a total of four weeks, with the discounted songs changing every week.

Meant to promote the McDonald’s Dollar Menu, the cheaper downloads are available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of the multi-instrument music title.

The discount schedule and specific per-week songs are:

5/6/08 – 5/12/08 :

5/13/08 – 5/19/08 :

5/20/08 – 5/26/08:

5/27/08 – 6/2/08:

The promotion was supposed to end on 6/2 and only 2 songs were supposed to be discounted each week, but it appears even though the promotion is over, all 8 songs are being discounted. Not sure if this is a permanent discount, or if it’s a glitch, but if any of those songs interest you above, you should get them soon. The only 2 songs I really know from that list are: Blink 182 – “All the Small Things” and All-American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”.

2 Free Disturbed Tracks for Rock Band (Xbox 360)

Got this deal from FromHyd on SD. According to the thread, you can get 2 free tracks by Disturbed (which is released on June 3rd, 2008).

  1. Go to Disturbed / Xbox / Rock Band
  2. Enter the following code: 1lfa89
  3. Click Submit
  4. Enter download code you receive on your Xbox Live Account

To redeem your token code, go to the Xbox 360® Dashboard and enter Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. Select the Redeem Code option to enter your code to begin downloading your content.

When I tried redeeming the code in Firefox, I got the error: You have already redeemed your code!, but it worked fine in IE7.

Disturbed According to Xbox 360 Fanboy, the following 3 tracks by Disturbed are scheduled to be released on 6/3:

  • Indestructible
  • Inside the Fire
  • Perfect Insanity

So it’s probably going to be 2 out of those 3.

You’re probably wondering what exactly is this deal? And what does it mean by Best Buy pre order code? I actually have no idea and the thread doesn’t really go into specifics. Someone did mention:

Code works. Disturbed Pre-Order Pack downloaded. OP repped!

So maybe pre order refers to the name of the download: Disturbed Pre-Order Pack which Best Buy was distributing. Or it could be you had to pre-order something at Best Buy to qualify for this code. Either way, I’m not sure what it means, but if you’re questioning the ethicality (is that even a word?) of this deal, I would suggest you probably skip it until more details are revealed.

Update: Apparently today is June 3rd.

Update #2: According to Mike C, Indestructable and Inside The Fire are the 2 free tracks in this pack.

Update #3: Looks like all the download codes have been redeemed.

HSBC Direct Increases Interest Rate: 3.50%

I just got this email:

The last time I wrote to you, I told you how committed we are to helping you get the most from your money and reach your savings goals faster.

Well, even as the economy continues to prove challenging and the Federal Reserve reduces rates, we have some good news to kick off your summer.

Your Online Savings Account rate has increased to 3.50% APY*, effective June 2, 2008. That’s up from 3.05% APY. And it’s 9x the national savings average.** This at a time when some other savings rates have been falling.

This great new rate will be available through August 15, 2008. After which, you’ll continue to get our great everyday rate. So the faster you deposit, the faster your money will grow.

And you can feel confident knowing that we’re part of the global HSBC Group ranked number one by Forbes magazine in their annual Global 2000 ranking issued on April 21, 2008.

Once again, I sincerely appreciate that you have chosen HSBC Direct as the place to make your money grow.

Sweet! While other banks are hovering between 2.75% and 3.15% (HSBC Direct was at 3.05% if I recall correctly) and when interest rates continue to drop, this is a sweet interest rate! Too bad it’s only going to last 2.5 months. I doubt others are going to follow suit, but who knows.

If you don’t already have an HSBC Direct account, you can get more information here: Online Savings, Online Payment and Online CD Accounts, HSBC Direct.

Not really worth opening a new account if you don’t already have one, but for those who do, it might be worth it to temporarily hold you savings in HSBC and get the extra 0.5% of interest. Best of all, it applies to your whole balance and not just new deposits like some banks (*cough* INGDirect *cough*).

Weekly Top Posts (5/25/2008 to 5/31/2008)

Here’s this week’s top post:

  1. How to download HD Trailers from Apple.com
  2. Six Flags Discount (~50% Off)
  3. Last Week: #5 Free AutoCheck Report (Similar to Carfax)
  4. Last Week: #3 4 Free Xbox Live Arcade Games
  5. Last Week: #10 Print USPS First Class, Media Mail, Parcel Mail Postage for FREE!
  6. New Weezer – Pork and Beans Music Video
  7. Last Week: #4 Windows Update Error: 80070490
  8. Last Week: #6 Reindexing Media Center Library
  9. Last Week: #8 Missing Codecs in Firefox to Play Video in Gallery2
  10. Last Week: #9 LeekSpin

Previously…

New comer for this week was my Weezer – Pork and Beans Music Video blog post. Got quite a few hits, I’m assuming from people searching for the story behind it.