"Heineken's tremendous brand, marketing savvy and deep commitment to the music industry make it the ideal partner for giving music fans a fun new reason to try digital music," said Adam Selipsky, vice president of marketing, RealNetworks.

Heineken & RealNetworks

There are two basic issues with this:

1. I do not like Heineken

2. I don't like AAC and really don't like 192kbps

If they go with Bud and Ogg I'm in.

rs

@ rickshaw:

claims about beer quality must be supported by an ABX test

not sure what the bud is like in the US, but in Australia it's like making love in a boat - f***ing close to water.

heiney is not bad. it might just be better if i get free songs with it. anybody can sell AAC if they include beer

i'd theoretically prefer vorbis, but that's not likely to happen without commercial backing.

[edit]
hmm... looks like this offer only stands in the US. bad move. if they targeted australia they'd be selling soooooo much ACDC and Cold Chisel AAC they wouldn't believe it...

Umm... wouldn't the quality of the beer have a detrimental effect on your ability to reliably ABX? By about the fifteenth or sixteenth round, most folks would be doing well to grab their glass on the first try.

- M.

Yes let's ABX taste test a few 12 packs.

Oh, and Fosters is so much better??

I am suppose I am opening myself up for some flames here but as an advert for real ale currently running in England says "are you scared you may taste something lagerboy!"

As for Budweiser give me a bottle of Budvar anyday.

Now if it was mp3's from the Bleep online store for every two pints down my local pub I would be in!

Actually, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who drinks Fosters here in Oz.

How can anyone not like fosters?

I can drink any of those beers. Bud is missing taste of beer, and here in Finnalnd it is quite expensive.
But to stay in the topic, that offer should be world wide.

I live in Sydney, Australia and I've never even -seen- fosters!

What about XXXX?

Monty Python rules

If they would extend this deal to Pilsner Urquell or possibly Velkopopovický Kozel, my friday night "entertainment pack" would get a tad more interesting

Are you sure there aren't any laws against that kind of deal? In Finland bundling totally unrelated products with the main product in order to boost sales was illegal for a long time since it gave the company an unfair competition advantage.

Edit:

Oh, and real ale rules too, death to watery lagers!

Dreamliner, you are going straight to heaven.

Drinking Fosters is like breathing wet air.

Methinks that reading this that we are (as if it wasn't obvious) a niche taste group. We reject the mainstream (Britney, Heine....CANT-EVEN-SAY-IT-WITHOUT-GRIMICING...ken), and embrace the (cliche time), alternative (Autechre, Real Ale).


Statement of the year! I'd like to go one further and say that virtually everything is missing the taste of beer when you get back from a trip to Belgium. Nothing really matches up to those trappist or abbey ales, certainly nothing comes close to a Chimay Blue or a Piraat for me.


Heh, AAC - General

XXXX is horrible

It seems everyone outside of Australia thinks we Aussies only drink Fosters

If you're not talking about Molson XXX, then that statement makes a modicum of sense. However, triple x is a helluva brew
And I'll sign up for the free AAC encodes when Guinness does it. I don't even think there's another beer that's worth drinking unless you're already totally on the piss to begin.

I second and third that emotion!
Budvar is excellent beer, our American Budweiser (made with rice! Why? Nobody knows) is just horse urine IMO
Pilsner Urquell is damn good too

Consider yourself lucky, it's piss beer like Budweiser and Miller.

Anyway, Heineken is not much better IMO, though I have no objections to AAC.
Ideally it would be with Lagunitas and would be lossless.


Treason! Heresy! String him up!
Actually I like both.

yeah exactly! nothing goes above european beer tradition (especially czech and german beer)

I was referring to Castlemaine XXXX. http://www.xxxx.com.au/

Its because of all the adverts, making a big deal about xxxx and fosters being austrailian, gives us the impression thats all you drink!

edit: formatting

I don't know about people in Sydney, but up in northern aus it was all about the Victoria Bitter. Now that's some good stuff.