Tech Shout!

Do you want free MP3 tracks? Well, all you need to do is drink Pepsi. No, no I’ve not had any Pepsi with rum, and trust me on that! Read on to know what I mean.

Pepsi and Amazon have joined hands to come up with a highly strategic move that may stir quite a chord or two not only within music lovers but also within music companies. From Feb. 3rd 2008 onwards, which is also the Super Bowl Sunday, Pepsi will kick off a promotion through which consumers will be able to download one free MP3 track on collection of five song codes from the soda bottles’ caps.

As many as 5 billion bottles will be used as a part of the promotion campaign, maintained the world renowned cold drink maker. With this kind of an aggressive promotion, up to 1 billion songs could potentially be purchased. To access the music from the participating labels, customers will have to either walk in to a specific redemption store or alternatively log on to Amazon’s website.

The latest campaign is an encore of what happened in 2004, where Pepsi had teamed up with Apple’s iTunes The 2004 Super Bowl initiative saw five million free tracks over a period of three months.

This time around however there are many more DRM-free tracks that are being offered by Pepsi and Amazon. But all the same it’s important to note that the actual number won’t be 1 million, as hypothetically stated by the campaign, since some people will have more or perhaps less than the required five codes.

Though all the leading music labels were invited to participate in the campaign, only a few agreed, as Amazon is offering the companies only 40 percent per track as against the usual 65-70 cents per song.