Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Jeff Leeds and Terril Yue Jones indicate that Apple and PepsiCo Inc. are poised to unveil a promotional deal that rewards Pepsi buyers with free songs from Apple's iTunes Music Store. The report comes on the same day that Apple is expected to unveil the Windows version of its iTunes software. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to make a presentation scheduled for 10AM Pacific Time at the Moscone West facility of San Francisco, Calif.'s Moscone Center. The LA Times couldn't reach representatives of either company for comment, but reported that sources indicate that Pepsi will "craft a multimillion-dollar ad campaign around the music store." The report suggests that consumers will be able to find codes in Pepsi's packaging that they will be able to redeem online for free downloads through the iTunes Music Store.
The iTunes Music Store was first unveiled in late April. The service provides users -- up until now Macintosh users, specifically -- with the ability to purchase and download commercially available music for $0.99 a song, or, in many cases, $9.99 for an entire album. Encoded using Dolby Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) and encrypted with Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection, the songs can be played on up to three Macs, burned to CD or synchronized to one of Apple's own iPod MP3 players. Yesterday Apple reported a $44 million profit for its fourth quarter, on revenues of more than $1.7 billion. The company cited the best quarterly sales of its iPod player to date -- 336,000 units were sold during the quarter. Apple CFO Fred Anderson deferred questions from analysts about the performance of the iTunes Music Store to today's special event -- he indicated he didn't want to take away from Steve Jobs' presentation to invitees.
News source: MacCentral
