Online pop meets fizzy pop: Coke's music site booming

Fizzy pop merchant Coca-Cola's foray into the world of online pop music looks to be doing better than expected, with the company seeing song downloads selling faster than, well, cans of Coke.

MyCokeMusic.com has been visited to date by 700,000 users - who can choose from more than 250,000 tunes and buy singles from 80p and albums from £6.40 - making it the most popular legal song site in Europe.

Taking a leaf out of archrival Pepsi's book, Coke has been driving take up of its service by offering drink buyers a chance to win a free download when they buy a bottle or can of carbonate. Chances of winning with Coke are one in 10, while the US pop-drinkers have a one in three chance of securing a song gratis.

Top tunes on the download site have been US hip hop outfit Outkast's Hey Ya and Aussie flop star Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl.

While Coke is cornering the market at the moment, the summer could see it facing some tough competition. Pepsi's darling, Apple's iTunes, is thought to be opening its doors across in Europe in the none-too-distant future, while Napster has also declared its intentions to unveil a UK-only offering in summer.