A great way to promote something new is to give freebies to your client base and that’s what Starbucks is doing. It will give away 50 million free digital songs to customers in all of its domestic coffee houses to endorse a new wireless iTunes music service that’s about to be launched in select markets. More than 10,000 U.S. stores will hand out about 1.5 million “Song of the Day” cards each day between Oct. 2 and Nov. 7. The cards can be redeemed at Apple Inc.’s online iTunes Store. The thirty-seven artists featured include Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Band of Horses. The first song will be Bob Dylan’s “Joker Man.”

On Oct. 2, Starbucks will start selling iTunes digital release cards that allow a full album of music and bonus material to be downloaded online. KT Tunstall’s “Drastic Fantastic” and the soundtrack to the film “Into the Wild” with new music from Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder will be the first two featured albums, retailing for $14.99 and $11.99, respectively. What’s really cool is that the coffee chain’s icon will light up on the iPhone or Touch whenever a user is within range of a Starbucks shop’s WiFi signal.
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