Last year, when Pepsi was giving away iTunes songs, I used my winnings for baseball-related music. I'm not doing that this year, so stories of my free music are going on this blog, not on baseballrelated.com.

At this point, I've got a list of 46 songs I want to get, mainly discovered through the new "iTunes Essentials" lists on the iTunes Music Store. A lot of these were songs I had forgotten I liked 20 years ago, or songs where I never knew the title and/or artist.

20-ounce Pepsis seem to range in price from 99 cents to $1.29, plus there's a 4-cent California "cash refund value," for a 1 in 3 chance of winning a free song. True, I could just buy the songs from the iTunes Music Store for 99 cents each, and not have to drink the Pepsi, but where's the fun in that?

Last year, the Los Angeles Pepsi bottler had a local promotion overlapping with the iTunes promotion, so the iTunes bottles showed up late here. That's not a problem this year; the coolers are full of the bottles with yellow caps. Now, I am currently 0 for 2 on Pepsis purchased from the Ralphs supermarket at Magnolia and Vineland in North Hollywood, and am also 0 for 2 on Pepsis purchased from the Sav-On Drugs at Lankershim and Oxnard in North Hollywood. I think I need to pay a visit to the 7-Eleven at Burbank and Colfax, a very short walk from my apartment, which is where I found the most winning bottles last year. (Last year, I also won several songs from Big Gulp cups, but I don't think they're included in the promotion this year.)

The good news for upstanding citizens like me is that they've slightly redesigned the bottles, at least the ones the local Pepsi bottler is using, that prevents ne'er-do-wells from seeing if there's a winning code under the cap before opening the bottle. There's a raised pattern on the top third.