The New York Daily News and EMI have cooked up a promo for this Sunday (Super Bowl) and Feb. 10 (Grammys): three free downloads for readers of each day’s NYDN. Each copy of the paper on those days will have an insert with a unique code that can be keyed in at NYDailyNews.com for three downloads from a library of more than 120,000 songs, including some from Grammy-nominated artists. One of the songs is a Ringo Starr exclusive from his new album Liverpool 8.

Just once, I’d like companies doing these promos to be straight about the results. Apple-Starbucks, Amazon-Pepsi, NYDN-EMI—how many people actually take advantage of the free downloads? And how many like me, who literally wind up throwing codes away because of expiration dates in small print or the like? (A considerable amount of iTunes-Starbuck cards never even made it to consumers—at least if the stacks I saw at stores are a legit indication—but no way to figure that out anecdotally.)