Hacking the Starbuck's Muzak Machine?

llamaluvr asks: "My friend is employed at a Starbucks coffeehouse, and he told me about a system they use for controlling what kind of music is played in the store. The machine can only play a particular type of CD, which contains 90-100 songs that "expire" after awhile, and is appearantly compiled/ produced by Hear Music, a subsidary of Starbucks. PlayNetwork is in charge of the the hardware. Anyway, he and his fellow employees are sick of Starbucks lame playlists, and they can't use normal CDs, as the machine tells them that the CDs are "expired". Does anybody know anything about how this system works? Is it at all possible to make a CD on your own that can be played on these machines?"

Comments

Oops, you are right

[PhysicsGenius]

They aren't trying to steal music. However, they are still trying to use company property for personal use which, like using your work computer to read Slashdot and taking office supplies home, is illegal and immoral.

I'd also like to note that the article mentions a CD that they "made themselves". Most likely from music stolen online, so my original point still stands.

check 2600

[tongue]

they really get into this kind of shit...

More on Public Performance Licensing

[north.coaster]

ASCAP has a FAQ that deals with the whole issue of public performance of copyrighted material. Well worth reading.

/Don

They're actually good employers

[mumkin]

Starbucks may be nasty for a host of reasons -- it's the WalMart of coffee shops killing off the little guys, it's got a nasty corporatized lifestyle thing going on, whatever -- but they offer great bennies and have some nice policies as well. Does McDonald's extend medical, dental and vision benefits to part-timers and their domestic partners? Do they support sustainable agricultural practices? Recycle as much as possible?

I don't drink Starbucks coffee if I have another choice, but I don't begrudge their baristas the choice to work for a company that treats them with respect. If you're working in the $7/hour zone, there are a lot of worse places to be. And damn but the chonga bagels are tasty :)

play network disc contents and a small hack

[Anonymous Coward]

We use the same system in the retail store I work in as the systems monkey. I went through the same dilema as this starbucks guy and thought I'd throw the cd into a cdrom to see whats on it. Theres a
data.txt
playdisc.aud

data.txt reveals this.....

[Playlist]
Version=3.1
ID=219091
Title=Your company name DISC 20
Programs=3
Songs=389
ProgramAdvance=0
SongA dvance=0
Expiration=2003/02/12
StartTime=05:00
EndTime=24:00

[Program1]
ID=13522
Title=Club & Dance & Pop 1
StartTime=05:00
EndTime=08:30
ProgramPlay=Nex t
MaxPlayTime=0
SongPlay=Random
Songs=49
Comme rcials=0

[Program2]
ID=13523
Title=Modern Adult Contemporary
StartTime=08:30
EndTime=21:00
Prog ramPlay=Next
MaxPlayTime=0
SongPlay=Random
Song s=170
Commercials=0

and so on, it lists the songs that are in each program too. As you can see, modern adult contemporary(translated "crap") is played most of the day. However, there is the redeeming club and pop that starts after a certain time of day. I considered replacing the unit with a cd changer and choosing my own music but instead just changed the time of day programed into the player so it would play the club and pop music earlier in the day. You'll have to take one of the discs home to find out what your discs are configured like but if you want to change the time on the player(there has to be a disc in it to do this) press the menu button repeatedly until "press select to set the current time of day" is displayed on the menu screen, hit select then use the view button to change the number, hit select again to accept the change then use the view button to do the same with minutes if desired...........

hope this helps ya out.