Envelopes. Courtesy of Sweden, no doubt via an English-speaking-band promotional program from whatever they call their ministry of culture and/or tourism (see also: Figurines, Hives, ongoing Canadian musical dominance). Three cheers for socialized indie rock!
UPDATE: On the Amazon MP3 Store page for the album I see that each track can be purchased for five “Pepsi Points”. A quick look at ebay shows some folks engaged in what I presume to be subversion of the Pepsi Points license: they’re selling one or two pennies at what has to be considered a pretty unfair markup. And, oh yeah, throwing in a few hundred Pepsi Points. But those are just a freebie, you understand. You can take ‘em or leave ‘em — the pennies are the basis of the transaction.
Some of the auction descriptions are pretty funny:
You paying for 2 US Pennies or officially 2 U.S. Cents equal to 2/100 of a U.S. Dollar
Details:
On the Front: A profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909.
On the Back: A depiction of the Lincoln Memorial.
Dimensions: .75 inches in diameter, .061 inches in thickness.
Composition: 97.5 % Zinc Core, 2.5 % Copper Plating.
Toxicity: Zinc in large quantities is toxic, swallowing the coin can cause stomach uneasiness in humans and near fatal occurrences for other animals such as Dogs and Parrots.
Parrot owners of America, you have been warned.
Anyway, if you’re willing to go through the rigamarole (and the risk of getting expired codes), this is actually a pretty good deal. You can find buy-it-now deals as good as two cents/Pepsi Point. At five points a song, that’s a 90% discount from the Amazon retail price for MP3s.
ALSO: Amanda directs my summer music attention to This Is Ivy League. And she’s right to do so: it’s pretty catchy, very summery, and distinctly Belle & Sebastian-ian: