Woodstock, Georgia resident Louie Sulcer, the winner of Apple's iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold Contest; thought it was yet another trick that his son was playing on him when he received a phone call and the person at the other end said, "This is Steve Jobs from Apple". It was only after he noticed the caller ID, which read 'Apple' did he realize that the call was indeed from the CEO of Apple Inc.
Louie Sulcer, who is 70-year old, a father of three and grandfather of nine is the winner of Apple's iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold Contest; a contest that Apple announced earlier this month to celebrate the download of 10 billion songs over iTunes since the media platform was launched over seven years back.
Sulcer was announced the winner for his download of Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way” song and stands to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Recalling his conversation with Steve Jobs, Sulcer says in an interview with RollingStone that he was unaware of the contest till he received the call. RollingStone reports:
"Sulcer first thought was that he was being pranked. “He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right,’ ” Sulcer tells Rolling Stone. “I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then — calls me and imitates somebody.” After three or four times of asking “Come on now, who is this,” Sulcer realized that his caller ID read simply “Apple,” and only then did he believe that he was the winner of the contest and a $10,000 iTunes card."
Having learnt to use the iTunes service from a high school friend just over three years back, Sulcer, who currently owns an iPod nano says that he might need to move to a bigger device with additional storage in order to make use of the $10,000 gift certificate.
However, as CNET notes, it is not clear if Apple would let Sulcer buy any hardware with the prize money. At $10,000 value, it is not possible for the winner to spend all the cash merely on music. Also, since the winner is liable to pay tax on the prize money, it not evident as to how that would pan out given that this is a prize with zero cash value.
What would you have told Steve Jobs if the great man had called you for winning the contest?
[via RollingStone, CNET]
