For six days next week, your regular Vente Nonfat Macchiato No-Foam Chai Latte can come with a side of Paul McCartney.

In an effort to promote its new partnership with Apple's iTunes store, Starbucks plans to give away 50 million songs from such artists as McCartney, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, John Legend, Keith Urban, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox, and Band of Horses.

From October 2-7, baristas in the company's more than 10,000 US stores will hand out about 1.5 million "Song of the Day" cards each day, with each card valid for one free download from Starbucks' Hear Music section in iTunes.

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

The promotion is an effort to jump-start the new wireless iTunes music service that's about to debut in select markets. Starbucks has signed on as a partner, with owners of the new Wi-Fi-enabled iPods able to download songs playing in a Starbucks shop directly to their portable devices.

Also on October 2, Starbucks plans to start selling iTunes digital release cards that allow a full album of music and bonus material to be downloaded online. KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic and the Eddie Vedder-penned soundtrack to the film Into the Wild will be the first two featured albums, retailing for $14.99 and $11.99, respectively.

Starbucks also will offer a limited-edition reloadable purchasing card that includes two free iTunes downloads when customers register their cards online.

The service will launch at 600 Starbucks shops in Seattle and New York on October 2 then roll out in San Francisco in early November.

Starbucks plans to have the service up and running in a quarter of its stores by the end of next year and in all US stores with wireless networks by the end of 2009. There are no immediate plans to expand the service to international markets.

Starbucks has been selling CDs in its stores for years and added its music catalog to iTunes last fall.