“Getting free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and the ‘Now Playing’ service at Starbucks is a great way for customers to discover new music,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool.”
“With this partnership, we’re bringing Apple’s leadership in digital music together with not only our retail footprint, but the unique Starbucks experience, to offer customers a world-class digital music experience,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company, in the press release. “Introducing this new service is a natural extension of our music strategy which only enhances the retail coffee experience for customers by helping them discover and acquire new music instantly.”
After its debut in New York and Seattle on October 2, the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store will continue its national rollout to 350 Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay area on November 7; 500 stores in Los Angeles in early February 2008; 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008; and additional markets throughout the US later in 2008.
The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks will run on the T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi network which is available at participating Starbucks locations across the US.
With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as Cover Flow, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, and the ability to turn previously purchased songs into completed albums at reduced prices, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
I’m not excited about this aspect of the new iPods.
Just a kick in the revenue pants for the iTS.
This deal gives me the willys – what’s next, Burger King?
Yawn. Corporate alliances aimed at profiteering.
What’s interesting is what this release doesn’t say.
I distinctly remember Starbucks announcing plans for a music store about eighteen months ago, IIRC, in partnership with HP and – and this may be wrong – Loudeye.
What this basically says is “our music retailing venture was a failure and we’ve decided to stick to making mediocre mass-market coffee-based drinks and become a partner of the 800lb gorilla of the industry. We hereby promise not to get involved in becoming a technology outlet and Apple have promised not to develop an iPod that makes coffee.”
This is great for Apple, and great for any ITMS customers who also buy coffee at Starbucks.
There are way too many astroturfers on MDN today–M$ must be getting desperate.
Go Apple!!
“Yawn. Corporate alliances aimed at profiteering.”
Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve heard of corporations partnering to bolster their profits. Welcome to capitalism.
I get the impression that you WILL pay for all other wifi use, that is, you only get free entry to the iTunes store but have to pay for everything else? Say it ain’t so!
“Yawn. Corporate alliances aimed at profiteering.”
…with free wi-fi. Yeah, it’s terrible what the world is coming to.
“…with free wi-fi. Yeah, it’s terrible what the world is coming to.”
Is that what you heard? Really? I heard wirelessly find and buy iTunes downloads via Starbucks. There’s a world of difference.
Wake up. Smartass.
“free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store” – is NOT saying free WiFi
People dont realise this at the moment but this IS HUGE.
Imagine walking past a tv shop and you see a film on the tv in the shop and you want to buy the film and all you do is press a button on your ipod or iphone and u can download it.
Or
You go to the cinema see a trailer for a new film and just press a button and you can preorder the film even before its on the cinema.
Or use see a concert poster and you decide you want to goto the concert and all you do is press the button and you have ordered your tickets.
This is the biggest advancement in mobile content usage in 20 years and will totally rewrite the mobile market and how people use content.
And Apple has created it – what a company.
Today Starbucks – tomorrow every kind of shop on every high street.
Inspiring and visionary.
But won’t be available in your area for another year. Great idea, terrible launch schedule. If these iPods are for the holidays, shouldn’t the roll out be just a tad quicker? Maybe I’m missing something, but all Starbucks locations have WiFi… what is the hold up? Dallas, Texas is one of the largest markets in the country and we might get the service sometime next summer? (according to the published roll out schedule) Missed opportunity in the short term.
what is the reason for the slow rollout? I would think this is a not hardware dependent – but i guess I’m wrong. Why?
In Canada, it’s taken Starbucks more than 6 months to roll out 2% milk – technically difficult apparently. I’d rather they focus on clean washrooms and hot americanos rather than using luke warm tap water. They need to focus their efforts on their “coffee experience”. For me I’ll go somewhere else for my coffee and wi-fi experience.