Pepsi and Amazon. They're new bed buddies, ya know. And they're getting the party started early next month, debuting a new promo at the SuperBowl. And it's not just any promo; it's Pepsi Stuff's biggest promo evar. We first mentioned it here . It was in the midst of a good amount of activity going on between record labels and online stores. It was particularly noteworthy because Pepsi, which had previously done similar promos with iTunes, had decided to go with newbie Amazon for this promotion in particular.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]Now, just a few weeks later, things are already different. For starters, Sony is now coming to the party, because it has finally realized how stupid DRM is. Same goes for Warner Music Group. These two music labels held out until the bitter end, watching EMI and Universal take the plunge. The wait-and-see approach has finally resulted in Sony doing the right thing. I talked a bit about the benefits for the record labels to participate in such promos, at they typically get money up front from the likes of Pepsi, and can bank on any residual attention they get through the downloading of their artists' music.
It sounds like a good way to help substantiate the suffering music industry, especially as so many aspects of the old media model find that giving away the content for free could also help bring in the advertising dollars. While mp3s may not go this particular route in the next few months, this promotional deal is important for Amazon as it brings a great deal of attention to the recently launched mp3 store, which is already battling iTunes in a price war.
