Industry Statistics - iTunes lets Facebook members buy gifts to send to Facebook friends

A Facebook member can purchase a gift through the iTunes Fan Page and send it to friends on their Facebook “walls,” part of the pages on the social network. Recipients can redeem the gift at the iTunes Store.

Zak Stambor

Managing Editor

Facebook members can now send iTunes gifts to music- and movie-lovers on their shopping lists through the iTunes fan page on Facebook.

Facebook members can purchase an iTunes gift on the fan page and send them with a choice of themed designs to family and friends instantly on their Facebook “walls,” part of the pages on the social network. Recipients can redeem their gifts on the iTunes Store, Apple Inc.’s online music store. Blackhawk Network, which provides gift card services, handles the transfer of the gift card value, which occurs entirely within Facebook.

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“With iTunes we have expanded further in the online marketplace to reach consumers via social networks like Facebook,” says Talbott Roche, senior vice president at Blackhawk Network.”It gives consumers another convenient way to instantly send the gift of iTunes.”

Facebook members can send gifts from the iTunes Fan Page in three steps:

Create and customize a gift with a personal message, in denominations from $5 to $50.
Schedule a time to deliver it; either immediately or on a future date.
Purchase it online with Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

The recipient receives the gift as a post to her Facebook wall and can instantly redeem it on the iTunes Store. Only recipients have the code to redeem the gift; other Facebook visitors to the reipient’s page only see that a gift was given.