July 24, 2007

By By Jody Thompson, London

EMI Music is to give away DRM-free downloads from its catalog in a U.K. promotion with Burger King.

The record company has teamed up with Chicago-based digital agency VerveLife for the push, which is the first in a planned series of global campaigns with VerveLife's brand partners.

Under the campaign, consumers will be able to search for, sample, and download a pre-paid EMI Music track from a specially-created microsite after inputting a unique code.

"EMI's recent decision to drop DRM has had a hugely positive impact on our potential to collaborate with brands in order to offer consumers downloads that they can play across all digital music players," Barney Wragg, global head of digital, EMI Music, said in a statement.

The deal, he added, provides "the perfect platform for us to partner with a wide spectrum of high profile brand names such as Burger King."

Justin Jarvinen, founder and CEO of VerveLife, went as far as to say the agreement "significantly alters the landscape of the $500 billion per year promotion industry."

With this partnership, he noted, "VerveLife can now reward tens of millions of consumers worldwide with instant access to some of the hottest music on the planet, in MP3 format."

Codes are being distributed to Burger King customers and there will be links from the microsite to an online retailer, allowing consumers to purchase further tracks by featured EMI artists.

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