Apple / Pepsi in 200 Million iTune track giveaway

Quakester2000

January 27, 2005

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that Apple and Pepsi will be teaming up again to help add that extra boost to the Apple iTunes music store. Apple plan to give away around 200 million free music tracks with Pepsi's soft drinks and products, the promotion will start at the end of January. As with the similar deal done with Apple last year codes will be printed on various Pepsi products and each winning code can be used to redeem a free music track. Along with the free music track giveaway, every person redeeming a track will be entered into a competition to win a silver Apple iPod mini. An iPod will be won every hour during the music promotion, which equates to around 1700 iPod units in total.

Last year Pepsi and Apple had done a similar deal to give way 100 million free Apple iTunes tracks but not all went to plan. Problems included people figuring out which bottles had the free music track codes and along with that only 5 million tracks were eventually redeemed out of the possible 100 million. Reasons for the large amount of unclaimed tracks were the late arrival of promotional bottles to various stores, this in turn caused Apple to miss its 100 million music track target.

The Apple iTunes / Pepsi promotion starts on January 31st and entries to win an iPod will need to be made before April 30th. Music track winners will have until May 23rd to redeem their free track. Apple has limited the number of free tracks winnable per day to 10 with a maximum of 200 winnable overall.

Apple Computer is once again looking to Pepsi to provide added pop to the iTunes Music Store. According to a posting on Apple"s Web site, Pepsi plans to distribute up to 200 million free songs in a promotion that kicks off at the end of the month. As with an earlier promotion, codes good for one free music track will be found in one in three specially marked bottles of Pepsi products. When winners redeem a free song, they will also be entered in a drawing for a free silver iPod Mini. Pepsi will give away one iPod Mini every hour during the promotion, roughly 1,700 iPod Minis in all.

The two companies teamed up last January on a promotion designed to give away 100 million free songs. Though some people found a way to determine which bottles had the free code, only 5 million songs were redeemed. Some bottles were also late to reach store shelves and, as a result, the Pepsi promotion was partly to blame for the iTunes music store missing its goal of 100 million song sales in its first year. Whereas the first promotion was designed to kick-start sales in the relatively new iTunes store, Apple is on steadier footing now, with sales of both music and iPods continuing to rise sharply. An Apple representative declined to comment on the Pepsi deal. A Pepsi representative was not immediately available for comment.

The promotion will kick off at midnight Jan. 31. Entries in the iPod Mini giveaway need to be made by April 30, while song winners will have until May 23 to redeem their free track. There is a limit of 10 free song redemptions per day and a total of 200 for the overall promotion. The contest rules note that Pepsi is the sole sponsor of the promotion.

It's a shame the number of winnable of tracks is limited to just 200 but its great that free tracks are being given away. This promotion is sure to make Apple an even more dominant force in the Digital music market.

Source: News.com