McDonalds and Sony to offer food with music

ACCORDING to various reports McDonald's is about to sign a deal with Sony which will enable McDonalds to bundle free downloads with its food and drink offerings all in exchange for the advertising of Sony's download service Sony Connect.

There seems to be no word on how this "Mc-download" will take place so we hope it is something better than its Wi-Fi offering being rolled out in various countries.

In Australia last August, the charge for WiFi access for the first 15 minutes was about the same as the price of a McDonald's meal, so the wisdom of using its Wi-Fi to check your email was a little doubtful unless of course you wanted to double the price of your meal.

All this for the joy of dirty hands on keyboards, risking food and drink being spilled on your PC and the delight of being near numerous children as the spams roll into the inbox advertising the delights of Viagra and worse.

The ubiquity of McDonalds might lend themselves to this kind of service but I just wonder if the Wi-Fi customers will ever return or will find better places to go.

As for the download service, maybe McDonalds is expecting a big rush of folk who would not otherwise be enticed into the restaurants.

McDonalds might be thinking in terms of tracks like Pink Floyd's "Money", but I wonder if in a few months it will be more like "Wish You Were Here". µ