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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!

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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.
    • senatorpjt, on 10/10/2007, -13/+4What kind of idiot would bring an iPhone to a concert? I won't even bring my glasses. I also leave my wallet at home and just bring my ID and some cash.
      • 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.
      • bshellenberg, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Why are you guys digging this guy down? I wouldn't take ANYTHING to a concert either (other than my meat and bones).
        • 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?)
        • rpgmaker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4They are diggers, hey haven't been in a concert. They don't go out.
    • streak, on 10/10/2007, -8/+3Starbucks icon = spamware. I didn't pay $599 to participate in a corporate marketing revolution. It was for personal freedom, just as Jobs and Schiller tout the fact that Macs don't come loaded with crapware the way PCs typically do. If Apple is going to go this route, then the iPhone should be given away.
      • 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.
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • tmnorris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I think there are a number of valid points here - I am an iPOD & iTUNES user but I buy the majority of my tunes as a hard copy CD. Retail prices for the whole CD aren't that different these days and I like to own the item. I use iTUNES for those oddities, singles and for the one off's where I wouldn't normally buy an album by that artist or know I couldn't stand the whole album. Also for Podcasts.

      Downloading exclusive tracks at gigs is a great idea; though this is going to be a limited market as I for one won't be taking a laptop to a gig and probably won't buy an iPhone...

      Streaming music and providing other relevant iTunes content to a particular location is a good idea, but as with the gig scenario your target customer is a minority. The only sort of locations that will work are those where you can sit and open a laptop - what are they? How about universities, libraries offering a audio book or recommending a podcast download ?

      The iPHONE is the only way this will work but retailers will have a hard time justifying providing this service only to iPHONE owners.
  • PurpZeY, on 10/10/2007, -15/+5Please be aware that if you brick your iPhone Starbucks reserves the right to deny you coffee.
    • chris9902, on 10/10/2007, -5/+6Thanks for the tip. I'm off to buy an iPhone so I can brick it.
  • BadAndy1967, on 10/10/2007, -12/+2Sweet, now i can't wait for the iphone hack to get free coffee!
  • Spawn2105, on 10/10/2007, -18/+1It may be a nice idea and all, but who really gives a *****.
    If you bring your laptop to Starbucks you're an ***** anyway, and if you happen to have an iphone that you are willing to take to Starbucks to download Music, do what you cant leave
    • 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!
  • BenWang, on 10/10/2007, -9/+3If Starbucks is paying Apple for placement, then shouldn't there be a discount per song for each each coffee purchased?
    • astrotrain, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Ah... a over priced cup of coffee...DRM infested music with crappy encoding.... what a way to start your Big Brother day.
  • khaledalissa, on 10/10/2007, -12/+1http
  • Zippo, on 10/10/2007, -7/+5The question is, how long until Canadian Starbucks get this?
    • stickyfingers, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Need an official provider for Iphone service in Canada first.. (uhmm yer not supposed to have an Iphone up here yet) ;)
    • MonkeyBoy87, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I think its timed to co-launch with the Canadian video/tv store on iTunes. ie never.
    • 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.
  • nickdngr, on 10/10/2007, -11/+8Apple really took the fight to two of its competitors on their own turf. Both Amazon and Microsoft are Seattle-based and Apple chose to use a third Seattle-based company as the partner for the concept which was launched in Seattle. Talk about bitchslapping them at their house.
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • Smiths, on 10/10/2007, -10/+1This will still fail. Still too expensive, and still crippled with DRM. I can find whole Chet Baker albums at Half Price Books for a 99 cents...
    Nice try though.
    • 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.
      • phronko, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4So does the lack of other options A) Make it right; or B) Guarantee its success?
        • 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.
    • epilonious, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1*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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • mikev, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the iTunes wifi store offers DRM free tracks as well.
  • majortom1981, on 10/10/2007, -8/+1I think this is stupid. Starbucks has an lcd screen that shows the name of the song and the cd that is playing and usually has those cd's for sale at the counter. Why would i want to buy an iphone or itouch to do this when i can buy the normal cd or write down the song and get it witthout drm at home?
    • simd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Because it's an easy, impulse buy.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • FknGoAway, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1I would like to see this happen in more stores and other places. Starbucks and maybe even concerts is great, but I would like to see more places like the local deli or supermarkets and such. A link to satellite radio, or play lists of your favorite radio station would also work, hear a song buy it if you want. Something else along these lines is the business could do adds, using the supermarket example, you could walk in and they just have to have a hotspot that loads there local page, shows you what is on sale or special.
    • simd, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Would be nice way to deliver coupons to the mobile phone.
    • streak, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Are you people for real? You welcome corporations intruding even more and in more ways in your life?
      • 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!
  • christor, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1So... no free wifi access for iPhone users at Starbucks. Figured as much, but it was at least ambiguous up until now. Oh well, I don't have an iPhone anyway.
    • twit987, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2then why are you bitching?
      • christor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining. I shouldn't have used the "So..." to start the comment, and given that I did your flippant reply was probably warranted. But this was something I was curious about (and I'm considering an iPhone), not least of which because I really dislike the pay-for-WiFi implementations in airports and coffee shops. I was hoping this would be a small dent in that. But no complaints - just would have been cool, as tdhurst says below.
    • 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.
  • neiltc13, on 10/10/2007, -8/+5I was in Starbucks yesterday. Some of their coffees are between £3 and £5. What a joke.
    • 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"
      • neiltc13, 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.
    • astrotrain, on 10/10/2007, -6/+4Yeah Starbucks is completely ridiculous.. I refuse to pay $5 for a cup of coffe... I can go down to WaWa or Dunkin Donuts and get bigger and better coffee for much less.

      Who cares about tunes, A) I don't (or will not) bother owning an over hyped priced cell phone. B) Coffee Houses are for Coffee not music, if I want music, I hit the Net. C) There are more important things to life then to sit and fiddle about getting songs at a Coffee shop.
      • 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.
      • 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.
    • garoboldy, on 10/10/2007, -4/+0This coming from a person that doesn't understand the viability of an open source community, and will purchase an overpriced Mac yet not pay for overpriced coffee. You are one confusing little person.
      • 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.
  • qqq345, on 10/10/2007, -8/+3Starbucks and apple together? On an iPhone no less? Talk about your pretentious/arrogant branding overload. Just imagine who the loyal users are going to be...im picturing the love child of an investment banker and Terrell Owens.
    • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2I pop my collar and show off my bling while I sip a Starbucks latte and download songs onto my iPhone. Sure, I look like a deuche, but damnit it feels good.
  • 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?"
    • tdhurst, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2What an excellent conversation starter...
  • 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, -0/+3Why? It's more than we had before.

      WiFi access would have been cool though.
      • 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.
  • jakdracula, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Blows my mind that people actually pay for music these days.

    I haven't spent a dime on music since the mid - 1990's.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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...
    • 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.
    • 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!
  • sputza, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I work across the street from a Starbucks and well within WiFi range. When does this come to Canada?
  • djdedeo0, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1I'm so tired of hearing bout anything Apple to be honest. Good products, yes. Good services, yes. Better then the millions of free songs I get from P2P, no. Why go to a hippy hangout to use a slow net connection when, from the comfort of my own home, I can use far superior forms of music downloading without having to look at some commercialized Starbucks crap. i leave it to the throw-a-way generation.
    • 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.
  • 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.
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