April 15, 2008

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Starbucks and iTunes have renewed their Song of the Day program, renamed Pick of Week, that aims to give away 1.5 million free downloads a week through the use of promotional gift cards.

Every Tuesday, more than 7,000 Starbucks stores will make available a download card for a different artist redeemable for a free song or music video via iTunes. The first will be the Counting Crows' new track "Washington Square." The Song of the Day program did the same, but on a daily basis, when Starbuck and iTunes first launched the iTunes WiFi Music Store on iTunes in October 2007. It resulted in more than 6 million downloads.

Customers taking Pick of the Week cards have 60 days to redeem the card. Future featured artists scheduled include Carly Simon, Duffy, Adele and Hilary McRae.

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