Pepsico Inc.’s promotion of Apple’s iTunes Music Store fell well short of Apple’s expectations, according to the company’s Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications, Katie Cotton. Cotton told Cnet that five million songs have been redeemed thus far. According to the terms of the promotion, which expires Friday, up to 100 million songs could have been given away.
Apple first announced the promotion with Pepsi last fall when it took the wraps off its second-generation iTunes Music Store. The promotion, financed and advertised by Pepsi with television spots that debuted during this past February’s Super Bowl, gave drinkers of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist a one in three chance to win a free song from the iTunes Music Store through the use of a code underneath the caps of 20-ounce bottles.
Pepsi distributors were slow to get the yellow-capped bottles onto store shelves in many locations around the country, however. Weeks went by before many Pepsi drinkers saw the caps. The promotion was initially expected to wrap up at the end of March, but has been extended to Friday, April 30.
The report indicates that the 5 million songs redeemed using Pepsi cap codes are part of the 70 million songs Apple reports have been sold by the iTunes Music Store in its first year of operation.