Coca-Cola Giving Away 2 Billion iTunes Songs

In what is being dubbed Europe’s largest music promotion, Coca-Cola has announced that it has teamed up with iTunes to give away two billion music tracks to European Cola drinkers.

“Coca-Cola has a long and rich heritage in music, from memorable advertising tracks to grassroots support to big live events. In Summer 2006 we started an innovative new partnership with iTunes,” said Chris R. Burggraeve, group marketing director for the European Union Group. “Coke+iTunes aims to reinvent the ways young people create, listen to, and experience music every day. Thanks to Coke+iTunes, European youth will enjoy this Summer 2007 the biggest pan European music experience ever. And what better way to build bridges among European cultures than through music?”

“iTunes is the world’s most popular online music store selling 58 songs every second at a rate of 5 million tracks a day,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’ve already had great success working with Coca-Cola over the past year and this new pan-European initiative gives music fans across Europe the ability to download free music all summer long.”

The promotion will begin in May and run through to August of this year.

iPods are also up for winning in the competition along with free tickets to many iTunes and Coke-sponsored concerts featuring various big names.

The 17 countries where the concerts will take place are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

Faithless have also recorded an exclusive track for the promotion, and will perform live at the launch event at Cannes Film Festival.

To aid the promotion Coke has designed a limited edition aluminium bottle.

Final Cut 2 Studio Ships

Several readers have noted to World of Apple that they have received copies of Final Cut Studio that they ordered after its release in April at NAB.

It is reported that upgrade versions of Final Cut Studio 2 are yet to ship.

TBWA to Create iPhone Ad

AdAge reports that TBWA will handle all the advertising for the upcoming iPhone.

The report states that people familiar with the account confirm that TBWA’s Media Arts Lab will handle all creative for the iPhone, much as the agency has for iPod. The agency has handled creative duties for Apple since 1997.

Both Apple and TBWA declined comment on the subject.