Amazon.com, Pepsi Bank On Free MP3 Music

A billion dollar giveaway starting February 1st will help Amazon.com take on Apple’s iTunes for consumer music purchases.

No pun intended, but Amazon.com and Pepsi will kickoff their big promotion during the Super Bowl.

The promotion also includes other giveaways, in exchange for collecting redeemable points from Pepsi products. Amazon.com said in a statement that CDs, DVDs, electronics, and other items will be available.

Amazon’s push to broaden its music purchasing customer base comes at a time when the four major music labels finally relented on their long-held, unpopular decision to encumber digital music with DRM technology. This limited the ways in which purchasers could use the music they bought.

An unencumbered song serves as Amazon’s best weapon against iTunes. While Apple’s music arrives via download as being compatible with Apple’s hardware only, an Amazon download can be placed on an iPod, Zune, or any other MP3-capable device.

Amazon also took the step of making its music buying process compatible with iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Users of either software product can have their Amazon download automatically added to that product’s music library for easy management.