Starbucks to give away 50 million iTunes songs

As the launch of Apple and Starbucks' partnership nears (October 2nd) Starbucks has announced a promotion running from October 2nd to November 7th, in which customers at participating locations can download the "Song of the Day" (selected by Starbucks, naturally), free from iTunes.

From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, baristas in the company's more than 10,000 U.S. stores will hand out about 1.5 million "Song of the Day" cards each day. The cards can be redeemed at Apple Inc.'s online iTunes Store.

Thirty-seven artists with featured songs include Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell — the first two to sign on with Starbucks' Hear Music label — along with Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Band of Horses.

The first song will be Bob Dylan's "Joker Man."

Since this is going to leverage the T-Mobile hotspot in each Starbucks, I wonder how long it'll be before someone figures out how to hack the system to gain full wireless access ... hmmm?