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Starbucks iTunes Music Store Reviewed, Pics

gearlive.com — The Starbucks iTunes Wifi Music Store has launched in NYC and Seattle. Here is the first full review of the new service!

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 2, 2007

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  • znicket, on 10/10/2007, -3/+54Looks interesting. But what really caught my attention was this last paragraph "Hopefully this kind of mini-store partnership won’t be limited to Starbucks and we will see many more partnerships in the near future. Having the feature available at concerts could be a huge win for Apple, music venues, and artists alike. Imagine seeing your favorite band perform a concert, and whipping out an iPhone to buy their albums or even songs from the live performance before heading home - the era of location-based e-commerce is close at hand."

    This would be fantastic and kudos to Apple for making the first step in this direction.
  • znicket, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10I'm guessing that there are various kinds of concerts. The ones I go to tend to have seats and whatnot.
    Different strokes....
  • tracydanger, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I was at a concert right after the iphone came out and someone had one there. They left with it...unharmed. They were not an idiot.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Yes, *****! How dare people bring laptops into a coffee shop! WiFi exists only for show, not to actually be used!
  • quomen, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8@jerkfaceirl
    "Reply" button
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6"i leave it to the throw-a-way generation."

    Much like throwing away your morals in not paying for something you're getting use from. Do they pay you at whatever job you have? Would you still work there if they didn't? If it has value to you and you don't pay for it, then yes, you've stolen it.
  • Strokemouth, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8That "review" read more like a commercial than anything. How can you not mention the fact that the only free wi-fi access is to the iTMS? That seems like a glaring fact that would cause it to lose points.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I haven't had to pay your mom for about five years now either.

    It's nice when we get things we used to pay for for free.
  • simd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Because it's an easy, impulse buy.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4They are diggers, hey haven't been in a concert. They don't go out.
  • AliasHandler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I don't know firsthand but I'm almost positive the icon will only show up if you're actually in a Starbucks, in which case it is expanding your personal freedom to make it easier to purchase a song you just heard that you might have liked.
  • MonkeyBoy87, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I think its timed to co-launch with the Canadian video/tv store on iTunes. ie never.
  • phronko, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4So does the lack of other options A) Make it right; or B) Guarantee its success?
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Why? It's more than we had before.

    WiFi access would have been cool though.
  • imamessy1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Plain drip coffee at Starbucks costs the same at Dunkin Donuts. I just got a large coffee at DD for $1.90 this morning.
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Please enlighten us on what legal download store offers wireless downloads to a Digital Music Player without DRM? I'd really like to know.
  • streak, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Because getting you further entrenched with iTunes is more important to Apple than adding cut/copy/paste functionality to the iPhone.
  • spazzcat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Its seems like stores like Target would want to get in on this...there many times I am in a department store and the music playing is something I would buy...
  • kingkilr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Touch?
  • streak, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Is that because you haven't heard any music worth paying for since the mid-90's or you're too cheap? I'll bet you don't even tip at restaurants.
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Dunkin Donuts will be doing this soon as well. Cheaper coffee, but the downloads will be restricted to "Workouts for dummies that eat too many doughnuts"
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Thank god there are no Dunkin Donuts outlets in the UK. I tried one on a recent trip to the US and it was not a patch on Krispy Kreme.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It's surprisingly simple and addicting. Sure, I might be able to save money by DRIVING SOMEWHERE ELSE, but that takes more time and money.

    This is a convenient way to buy songs, period. It will work just fine for 99.9% of us.
  • jerkfaceirl, on 10/10/2007, -4/+6@senatorpjt
    I bring my ipod and wallet to every gig, usually because I walk to get to them and when I get there I want to drink.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Do you own either a touch or an iPhone? No? Then you have no idea how simple and addicting this is.

    Hear a song? Download the song. Have the song. Takes about three minutes.
  • daniel02, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Because it's my phone. I usually need my phone to text folks I'm meeting up with, and use it to take photos of the show to use as my phone's background for a few weeks, etc.
    then again, at 28, I stay out of the mosh, leaving it to the younger, more exuberant concert-goers. (And they sometimes start at the most random shows. Mosh pit at a Cake show? at Death Cab? wtf?)
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4The previous comment was brought to you by...Kelloggs, breakfast cereal for the soul, and...GM, makers of the Hummer 2, now not quite as polluting and gas guzzling!
  • metalgearbuffy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+210 points
  • AliasHandler, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I absolutely LOVE you people that refuse to buy Starbucks because it is too expensive, act all high and mighty because of it, and then make fun of people who go to starbucks for being pompous. Get over yourself and your apparent amazing ability to choose not to buy a product you don't want to pay for. We don't all need to hear about it EVERY time a starbucks article shows up.
  • bbqribs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This is kind of a neat idea, but I never hear anything in Starbucks that I'd want to buy. I have enough Paul Mccartney and Bob Dylan to last me a lifetime.
  • skoles, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Bands typically sell their albums at the concert. I'd rather walk away with a physical CD in that case.

    Now if I could prepay for a recording of the live show I was just at and download it later..that would be something cool.
  • daniel02, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I could see this rolling out to chains like Target, but I also see this in chains known for free WiFi access in all of their stores. Firms like La Madeleine and Panera Bread will want to compete with Starbucks and already have a contingent of regulars visiting for free WiFi access.

    Other possibilities? Laundromats, large shopping malls (esp. the food courts), and museums.
  • chris9902, on 10/10/2007, -5/+6Thanks for the tip. I'm off to buy an iPhone so I can brick it.
  • AliasHandler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It has alot to do with the fact that Starbucks has a long-term contract with T-Mobile which prevents them from offering free wi-fi access.
  • streak, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1U.S. residents aren't allowed into Canada?
  • FreydNot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1There is a special bit of irony that they are using the T-Mobile wifi network to serve up songs to the iPhone.
  • streak, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Are you people for real? You welcome corporations intruding even more and in more ways in your life?
  • Zippo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You don't need an iPhone to access this. All you need is iTunes, so it's still a valid question.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Free WiFi access WOULD have been cool, no doubt about that.

    I do have an iPhone and I'm not bitching.
  • TWiTsoldier, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Linkin Park has been doing this for their entire Projekt Revolution tour this year. Hopefully more and more bands will be doing this. I would love to have a professional audio (or even better, professional video) recording of every concert I went to.
  • AliasHandler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It makes life easier, at a premium of course. If you would rather buy the album DRM free then thats fine for you, but for some, they would choose to be restricted to only use on five computers for the sheer convenience of getting that song immediately.
  • mikev, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the iTunes wifi store offers DRM free tracks as well.
  • astrotrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1$1.20 @ WaWA with Refill mug....
  • MacParrot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It does neither. It's value would be based on what users (of which I am not since I don't have an iPhone or typically drink Starbucks coffee) of the service give it. But to simply dismiss it is wrong as well. Example: The Zune's sharing function over WiFi. I would find it useless, but since I don't have a Zune I didn't base my opinion of the device on it. I rarely talk trash about technology I don't use.
  • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2What an excellent conversation starter...
  • joelhardi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Right on! Elevators play kick-ass music too, I wish there was a way I could load those songs on my iPod!
  • streak, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2"Thanks for meeting here today to go over the approach we'll be taking with the new account. Excuse me one moment while I check my iPhone... anybody know who is singing?"
  • epilonious, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2*shrug* It's been doing pretty well for them thus far. It's interesting how people feel the need to "predict failure" on something that has been going strong for several years now.

    The entire point of this whole setup seems to be that you can get it "right then" and otherwise provide another way to get that giddy "it works, the button showed up, this is so neat!" feeling that one always seems to get when playing with their latest iProduct. Going to the half-price books store doesn't give that experience at all... it just makes someone feel cheap and worried about scratches.
  • spam4jan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Or perhaps the person who bought the mac likes to run commercial programs along with all the best stuff from the open source community.

    God people whine and whine, Apple didn't partner with Starbucks just because they looove~ their coffee, it might have something to do with the fact that there is one on almost every corner in (as far as I have seen) every mid size+ city in the US and Canada.
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