Pepsi and Apple are teaming up yet again, this time with a new giveaway for free Apple Music streaming all summer.
On Tuesday, the soda giant announced its “Press Play on Summer” promotion, which will offer unlimited streaming on Apple Music this summer with the purchase of select limited-edition beverages. Other prizes include clothing, $5 prepaid Mastercard gift cards, Beats headphones, and VIP flyaway trips to Apple Music Live events.
Bad Bunny, the most-streamed artist on the planet, will be the face of the campaign, which will run from May 22 through September 17. New and qualified returning Apple Music customers are eligible, but existing subscribers will not be able to take advantage of the offer.
To enter, scan the QR code on bottles that advertise the promotion. From there, people can get up to three months of Apple Music for free and potentially win one of the other prizes.
The partnership of Apple Music and Pepsi is a long-standing one. As far back as 2004, the two companies teamed up for a campaign during Super Bowl 38 to give away 100 million songs on iTunes. That promotion, though, didn’t go quite as planned.
The ad purported to feature kids who had been prosecuted for downloading music off the internet (something that was frowned upon at the time) and came across as preachy. That was exacerbated by shipping issues. The bottles that included the winning code to download a song from iTunes were late to store shelves in some major markets. And people were able to look under the caps without buying the soda to determine if it was a winner.
In the end, people only claimed about five million of the 100 million available songs.
Pepsi and Apple tried again the next year, doubling the number of songs available for download and adding iPod minis to the prize pool.
While they’ve worked together for years, there is a certain ironic quality to the current promotion, since Apple Music took over the Super Bowl Halftime Show from the cola giant earlier this year, stealing a big marketing spotlight.
Apple Music is in the midst of a long fight with Spotify to gain market share. Spotify continues to be the leading music subscription service, with 500 million total users, although just 210 million of those are premium (paying) users—and the ratio of paid to free users has been on the decline for several years.
High profile promotions, like the one with Pepsi, are helping Apple bridge the gap. JP Morgan predicts the service will have 110 million subscribers by 2025, a substantial growth rate from its 2015 beginnings.
Apple does not give a sales breakdown for its music services.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
