Coke and Apple join for 70m iTunes download promotion

LONDON - Coca-Cola and Apple are to give away 70m free song downloads in a major pan-European promotion through the iTunes Music Store website.

The promotion, first revealed in Marketing magazine last month, will begin in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, means Coke will distribute song codes on cans of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, which can then be exchanged online for tracks from ' library of 3m songs for free.

It is expected that further deals will roll out across other major European countries over the coming months, which Coke and Apple said would give unsigned bands the chance to expose their music.

Apple has experienced huge success with its song download business, having sold more than 200m songs across Europe since its inception, with 150m of them occurring in the last year.

Last month, Coke closed down its MyCokeMusic webpage, which it launched in January 2004, after yielding to intense competition from Apple.

However, Apple's days of dominance of the European download market may soon be numbered in France, where a law has recently been passed staying that iTunes downloads should not just be restricted to iPods.

The promotion will be pushed through a series of live concerts, which will be held across Europe with podcasts of gigs set to become available through iTunes and the Coke .

From next week, Coke customers in Germany will be able to exchange Coke Fridge loyalty coins for free song downloads from iTunes, with the deal set to be rolled out across the rest of Europe in the autumn.

Dominique Reiniche, president of Coca-Cola European Union Group, said: "Together we are creating a unique and exciting platform that gives young people a voice and allows them to refresh their music experience every day."

In May, MTV and Microsoft said they were to launch a rival to Apple's iTunes called Urge, which will use Microsoft's Media Player to allow users to download MP3 tracks.

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