Carlson Marketing Launches Digital Music Rewards

Carlson Marketing is offering a new option to redeem loyalty points via a digital music store.

The Upbeats music store lets loyalty program members download music in exchange for their loyalty points. Participants redeem their points from Carlson’ Marketing’s e-catalog and download music from Upbeats.

The program, developed with PureTracks, offers an extensive catalog of music. Future offerings on the Upbeats site will include music videos, movies and MP3-formatted music files.

The service is available to U.S. residents and will roll out to members in Canada this year, the company said.

Carlson Marketing launched the program in part to take advantage of growth in the music industry. Digital music sales grew by 10% to $2 billion in 2006, said Farhad Coovadia, director of merchant relations for Carlson Marketing.

“We developed Upbeats in response to this growing trend, creating an innovative new award category in the industry,” Coovadia said in a statement. “By eliminating the need for plastic cards printed with download information, we’re able to leverage our existing e-catalog and order management systems. This allows us to offer Upbeats at an attractive price to clients on our white-label e-catalog.”

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