Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Unplug the jukebox, take the speaker wires and maybe the amp, and plug a normal cd player in. Simple.
Chances are it's just got a date or an ID on it, no signing or anything fancy like that, meant to keep stores from playing the wrong disc or from having playable music if they don't continue to subscribe.
I'd dump an image and look for something nonstandard in the TOC. If I were making a player that locked users out, I'd put it right there so I could use a standard CD player and just add code to compare the tail of that buffer to a 16 bit date number or such.
If you're really unlucky, they might actually be going so far as to put this on a special kind of limited use disc (a unique Disc Application Code in the Wobble Track), but it's unlikely they'd go to that expense unless this is a very popular and expensive service (which it may well be). At the least, I wouldn't be surprised if it were an audio disc and not a data CDR. I believe gcombust can tell you what DAC was read when a disc was inserted, and that might tell you more.
By the way, if it does have a special DAC, you're screwed without getting special media pressed or modifying the player. You can't write a wobble with a regular CD burner.
Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
Ponder for a second the other side of the issue, before you and your friend do anything rash.
The company/licensee/franchisee may be paying a licensing fee for this equipment and may be contractually bound to use said CD or Subscription service. By using a homemade CD in said system, they may be asking for trouble.
Keep in mind, this is just one possibility. I'd hate to see someone get in trouble because they didn't think before they acted.
If your end goal is actually to play YOUR music at Starbucks, would it not just be easier to bypass their system altogether and patch in a regular CD deck or Discman to play your CD's?
_____
If you can't hear the voices in my head, then you're just not listening hard enough.
Umm...I'm not sure this should have been modded at '+4 Funny'...more like '+5 Serious'
What makes you think you are allowed to change the music? Corporation's marketing dep. says "we want this music to be played all the time in your Starbucks because 1) we have found that it leads to more people drinking more coffee and 2) we want to sell our cd compilations of the music so people can listen at home and pretend they are in Starbucks" Corporation says "behold, it is law"
And then you come along and think, hell, I work here, I wanna hear TMBG all day long and not this crap.
DO YOU THINK YOUR OPINION MATTERS?
Watch how quickly you get fired for tampering with their ordained music selections (which I'm sure is both a corporate perogative as well as the CEO's favorite songs)
This isn't 1999. It doesn't matter if you're happy or not. There will be no pool table in the office lounge. Suck it up. You work at a glorified McDonalds.
Before you go too far down this path, consider that any music played in a retail establishment like Starbucks is technically a "public performance" and would need to be licensed for that purpose. The reason SB uses that kind of technology is (probably) because they pay licensing fees as part of the deal, hence the expiration (it is a limited use license).
Most stores don't bother with this, because they are not going to be targeted by the RIAA. However, Starbucks is using music to create an "ambiance" meaning that the music is part of their product, and the patrons are expected to linger and enjoy it. Thus, they are "selling" the music as much as the coffee (even if you don't want to pay for it).
Plugging in your own CD player, or hacking the system in order to play your own music will make Starbucks libel for copyright infringement, which I imagine they wouldn't appreciate.
Sorry, I suggest you forget this endeavor.
I'm a lawyer with excellent karma. Something's gotta be wrong.
The only reason people are posting dont do this, you'll get fired, is because they dont know the answer to the poster's question, and any one who posts such a message should be considered off topic. He knows if he gets caught he might get fired, and no, he doesnt care... Its just Starbucks.
::i visited slashdot and all i got was this lousy sig::
Forget all this "It's Starbucks' place, so it's Starbucks' rules". That *is* true, but any sensible company is (or should be) always looking for ways to improve their business.
Have you tried finding out what both customers and staff prefer to listen to, then sending it to the people that organise the music for Starbucks? That would seem to make the most sense to me...