AppleInsider Staff
Apple and Starbucks said Wednesday they have entered into an exclusive partnership that lets customers wirelessly browse, search for, preview, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks onto their iPod touch, iPhone or PC or Mac running iTunes while at a participating location.
Customers will be able to browse, search and freely preview millions of songs, including a new “Now Playing†service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that moment, then easily buy and download songs or albums directly to their device.
Prices and selection on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store are the same as on the regular iTunes Store. The service will make its debut at more than 600 Starbucks company-operated locations in New York and Seattle on October 2.
“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 Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. “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.â€
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 robust T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi network which is available at participating Starbucks locations across the US.
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12 Comments
It's good to see the two companies doing SOMETHING together, even if this is one I'll probably never use. My goal is usually to stick in my headphones and drown out the awful music in Starbucks; certainly not to buy it.
BIGGER PICTURE: I hope this is a precursor to a larger deal that lets me use my iPhone's WiFi at Starbucks for everything else, not just for buying bad songs. I miss my pre-iPhone days when I had T-Mobile and thus every Starbucks meant free WiFi.
It's good to see the two companies doing SOMETHING together, even if this is one I'll probably never use. My goal is usually to stick in my headphones and drown out the awful music in Starbucks; certainly not to buy it.
BIGGER PICTURE: I hope this is a precursor to a larger deal that lets me use my iPhone's WiFi at Starbucks for everything else, not just for buying bad songs. I miss my pre-iPhone days when I had T-Mobile and thus every Starbucks meant free WiFi.
I think you can do more than buy bad songs, you probably can buy some good ones unless you think the entire iTunes site does not have ANY good songs on it.
The heck with Seattle...... I'm looking forward to this being available at the Starbucks in Redmund!
Don't Starbucks stores have free wi-fi hotspots for general internet browsing like all other coffee shops? Can you not buy songs from iTunes from this?
What I want to know is this -
When the Starbucks founder came onstage, the keynote screen mentioned "free Wi-fi iTunes access at all Starbucks" or something to that effect, but did not mention if you can use their wi-fi access to use the safari browser on the iPod Touch. For me, being able to access the web in addition to iTunes at Starbucks is huge but it looks like the only access you'll have with the touch while at Starbucks is to iTunes.
Thoughts?
Don't Starbucks stores have free wi-fi hotspots for general internet browsing like all other coffee shops? Can you not buy songs from iTunes from this?
No. Starbucks partnered with T-Mobile. You must purchase your internet access at their stores.