Twitter, Pepsi Announce Music Partnership For Live Concerts, Downloads & More

Music is definitely huge on Twitter – so huge in fact, that the top five most-followed accounts are musicians. Recognizing the high amount of engagements musicians experience through their service, Twitter recently announced a global partnership with Pepsi focusing on music; giving Twitter’s 140 million active users a unique and real-time way to discover and consume music.

The partnership involves offering free music downloads, weekly music updates, and live streaming of concerts via Twitter. By following Pepsi's Twitter account, Twitter users can now get access to free music downloads from Amazon MP3, and will receive messages about new and notable music using the #LiveforNow hashtag. Pepsi will also post a weekly video summary of music news based on an analysis of trending topics on Twitter. Followers also receive free download codes every week that they can then use towards more music in Amazon's MP3 store.

Fan can also watch a new weekly video series entitled “Live for Now Music”, which is based on the top music and artists trending on Twitter; essentially using Twitter’s real-time data to develop original programming.

Taking things offline, fans will also experience a series of pop-up concerts in the U.S. commencing this summer and fall. These concerts will feature “major artists” with large Twitter followings, and will be announced first on Twitter so that their fans can spread the word via the service. Each concert will be streamed live through Pepsi’s enhanced Twitter profile page, and followers will even be able to influence aspects of the live shows concert, such as tweeting the names of songs they want played in order to alter the set list.

According to one report, Pepsi has put aside upwards of $600 million in additional marketing for 2012, and that the loss of market share to Coca-Cola (Pepsi lost its #2 spot to Diet Coke in 2010 according to Beverage Digest) is making investors concerned.

It's apparent that with this partnership, reaching out to younger consumers has become particularly important for both companies. But this is especially important for Pepsi, for we now live in a time when consumers have a multitude of beverages to choose from such as energy drinks, sports drinks and bottled teas – which have all been seeing more growth in the U.S., while sodas have been on the decline. 

Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud