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Wednesday, September 05, 2007, 02:00 pm
Apple and Starbucks announce music partnership
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.When a customer enters a participating location, their device will automatically recognize the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store using a high-speed Wi-Fi wireless network with no connection fee or hotspot login.
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.”
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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Previous Comments View All
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.
No. Starbucks partnered with T-Mobile. You must purchase your internet access at their stores.
That's dumb. I'd rather go to a slightly less pretentious and expensive coffee shop anyways.
So it appears that ONLY iTunes via Starbucks Wi-Fi is the game here. No web browsing unless you pay T-mo. That sucks Grande Mocha Frappuccinos! I'd rather go to another joint with free Wi-Fi than get corralled into iTunes Store only access.
No. Starbucks partnered with T-Mobile. You must purchase your internet access at their stores.
Mad Lame.
Also, is the music at starbucks in the USA even varied enough to warrant a "now playing" list?
This is just so much marketing buzz for the sake of having something ostentatious to promote the WiFi in the iPod Touch. The StarBucks roll out schedule is so slow that the battery in your no-longer-new iPhone Touch will be long since dead by the time it gets implemented. (On the plus side, the iPod version available in 2020 - when StarBucks adds this feature to my city - will have 500gb of storage and an HDV camcorder built in.)
With thousands of free WiFi locations to use, StarBucks is the last place I'd go and pay to use my iPod.
Heck, my local grocery store deli has free WiFi to use while chowing the daily lunch special (I'm usually watching TV shows on my 5.5G 80gb there while I eat). Even my optometrist has free WiFi while you wait. Do you suppose I'll be able to access NBC.com and watch My Name Is Earl reruns on my new WiFi Touch?
Here is the info about starbucks and tmobile is their hotspot provider, not AT&T. It will not change to AT&T either. That would not make sense at all. 
See the article about AT&T building hotspots for an erroneous report about what I mention. AT&T is not building anything in starbucks locations. Their hotspots are located in Coffee Beans, McDonalds, Barnes and Nobles, and some airports. More info at: http://attwifi.know-where.com/attwif...design=default
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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.