Coca Cola is entering the digital music biz in Britain. While everyone and their mother is getting into the game, this is actually pretty interesting because with Coke's marketing budget and name recognition they could bring a lot of consumers into the market. It could also be a step toward using digital music unabashedly as a marketing tool. Apple admits iTunes works best as a marketing tool for iPods, someday soon a company like Coke may GIVE the tunes away - oh wait, Pepsi and Apple are doing that.

Coca-Cola is launching an Internet music download service in Britain next month, the first consumer brand to jump into Europe's crowded Internet music market, the company said on Monday.

The soft drinks maker said that in January it will begin selling music downloads from a catalog of 250,000 songs supplied from each of the five major music labels.

The artists range from Eminem to Elvis, delivered through a partnership with OD2, a British music-download company. The companies did not announce the pricing plan for downloads.

....Coke's main rival, PepsiCo, will join forces with Apple Computer iTunes download service in a 100-million-song "under-the-cap" giveaway beginning in February. The Apple service is not available in Europe. [Wired]