Burnt Coffee and Burnt CDs

senzafine writes "Cnet reports that HP and Starbucks are jointly working on Storefront Coffeeshops which will allow people to browse and listen to music from a digital library...and have selected songs burned to cd. Sounds really cool...wonder how long before Starbucks and HP get John Doe lawsuits in the mail. --- But does this seem like an idea that would work?"

Comments

RIAA Was quoted..

[graveyardduckx]

...as saying "All your coffee are belong to us." during a raid of a local Starbucks while seizing 20 computers, 400lbs of coffee beans, and a 12 year old Indian girl with one leg.

w00t

[Pumpernickle]

Coffee - and coasters to put the mugs on, too! It just doesn't get better than that... :)

Coffee and music -- Why?

[Junior J. Junior III]

I don't know, this sounds like a dumb idea to me. I mean, I just don't see the synnergy between the two brands. If I want to go out for coffee, I go out for coffee. If I want to listen to music, I either go to a club or (back before I decided to boycott music) check out a music store. I guess some people go to coffee places to pick up girls and flirt, and amongst the young musical tastes can be a critical selection trait, and the young are an attractive demographic to target, but even so I don't see this catching on, really.

Re:Coffee and music -- Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually Starbucks has been in the music business since before 1999. In 1999 they aquired a small company called Hear Music. Hear Music prides itself on being a small group of people who really know and love music. Hear Music are the same people who program the music you hear in the Starbucks stores and the same people who create the starbucks compilations.

Hear Music also has a few record stores in California. The store in Santa Monica re-opening on tuesday has been on the third street promenade for over 6 years.

So where is the synergy? How about picking up a latte and then listening to any CD in the store -- full length CD, not 30 second samples.

Re:Coffee and music -- Why?

[Drantin]

Let's say you're sitting at a Starbucks, drinking some coffee. You hear a song over the speakers you happen to like. All you have to do is call out: "Could I get this on a CD, please?" They burn you the CD. On your way out (or right then) you pick it up... It works perfectly together...

Re:Coffee and music -- Why?

[Bodrius]

I'd say the amount of Barnes & Nobles, Borders, and similar bookstores that have their own coffee shop inside, speaks of the synergy they want to exploit.

This is not new at all. Already people go to Borders to hang out, have coffee, check out some books and CDs... and leave with some bags of new stuff.

Some time ago, just as they learned that their business is media, bookstores learned that retention over time (browse, browse, browse) is the key to increasing their business. Coffee shops, poetry readings and social events are such forms of retention. Corporate bookstores are the new mini-malls.

A common complaint of the typical college file-sharer (precisely the age demographic that most often does the above in my experience), is the songs-I-want : CD-price as a factor limiting the amount of CDs they would buy. They spend some time browsing, listening to CD samples, and at the end they have to choose which one to buy because they like 3 songs from different CDs but each costs 20 bucks, and they can only afford one.

Given a choice to spend money per song plus media, they'll take it and be more satisfied customers. And satisfied customers are more likely to rationalize to themselves larger expenses, buying those 2 CDs they can barely afford becuase it's exactly what they want anyway. By lowering the price barrier you increase the rate of impulsive buys.

This is part of why iTunes is successful; and these are sales straight out of the "browse, sample, buy" market of Virgin, Borders et al. It only makes sense puts 2 and 2 together and embeds the new business model with the old retention scheme.

I'm only surprised it's HP and Starbucks we're talking about, and not Borders, or Barnes & Nobles, partnered with either.

Music distribution is not for everyone...

[dealsites]

Why must everyone be involved with music these days? Pepsi, Coke, Starbucks....

What's next? I'm going to get a free song with a Happy Meal? I guess there are a lot of execs out there that think if you don't offer music in one way or another, then you must be doomed. I esitmate that in a few years, we will be back to several high quality music choices.

--
Real-time deal updates

Strategic Option Generator

[HebrewToYou]

I'm curious as to what possible reasoning Starbucks used to enter this completely alien market. There's little money to be made from it and it seems impractical due to the time required to both burn the CD and create the playlist. Unless their goal is to keep the customer in their store for longer periods of time -- which I could see as a viable business model -- there really doesn't seem to be any strategy involved.

As an employee of a publically-traded rival corporation [Peet's Coffee & Tea] I'm not exactly unbiased here, but I'm wondering what others have to say about the strategy behind such a radical departure from the typical role of a coffee shop.

very good coffee?

[Anonymous Coward]

At long last the secret of Starbucks' "very good coffee" is revealed: burn the holy living shit out of your beans!

Now you, too, can have that wonderful taste of charred coffee in your very own home!

bingo

[MacAndrew]

i think they do quite a bit in the hope of luring customers and getting them to linger to maybe buy a second round or other stuff. they play music, provide tables outside, sell newspapers, easy bwireless access.... i'm not that wild about their coffee buy will pay extra not to be told to leave right away. :)

also i suspect starbucks feels pressure to continually reinvent itself rather be perceived as yesterday's coffee news. notice how mcdonalds introduces new items of dubious value to get some buzz and quietly drops them later. (or such is my impression, i don't eat there anymore.)

now if only starbucks could make coffee that didn't taste burnt. i like underdogs, good luck peet's. we have an indy coffee place nearby that has *couches* and wireless..... i doubt the chains will go this far, that's just a bit too inviting.

Good idea for HP, bad choice of partner.

[cgenman]

Have they even been into one of their shops recently? On any given morning the place is packed beyond all reason. Adding a laptop listening station and headphones will only add to that problem.

There are three types of people in starbucks: Those freaky, overhyped, quad-shot espresso people, who are terminally late to work and just forgot to pick up their kids from soccer practice; the blue collar men in dirty clothes who are so relaxed you would think someone slipped prozac into their spam; and the college kids / young pros with their laptops who come to get some work done in the peace and quiet of a store full of caffeine withdrawal victims screaming for soy milk in their peppermint no-whip half-caf grande white mochas. None of the above seem like the type who would hang out to pay for music... too busy, occupied, or just poor. Admittedly, this might fly in the retail store locations (the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble, for example), as they draw a more relaxed, less goal-oriented crowd, but I can hardly see their host stores being happy about the competition.

Starbucks does this every now and then. They had that crazy arrangement with Kozmo before they went Kaput, whereby drop-off stations were strategically placed in every Starbucks in exchange for some significant quantity of realbucks. Kozmo might actually have made it if it wasn't for that tremendous monetary commitment.

Personally, I don't see this arrangement being significantly more successful than that one.

Oh well. They've got the money to try, I guess. Someday they'll find another use for their successful cafe chain. Besides, of course, being the seat of power for Mister Evil. Sorry, Doctor Evil.

*full disclosure- used to be a Barrista. I was young, I needed the money.

Unfortunately, not likely

[gotr00t]

Though Linux is very flexible, without all those licensing issues (go ahead and troll, SCO trolls) like Windows, it is highly unlikely that SBUX and HP are going to use it on this system for two reasons that I know of: 1. They are going to use TabletPC's for this, something Linux has somewhat limited support for, particularly in the handwriting recognition aspect. 2. HP's provider of digital music is most likely going to be Apple, and this means a modified version of iTunes. Apple has not included Linux support for anything.

Re:Would it work?

[Anonymous Coward]

the prices are:

You get 5 tracks for $6.99 and $1 per each track after 5. With your CD you get a custom designed cardboard package with user designed 4 color insert) plus a four color image (and your CD title) printed on the CD itself (no sharpies used here).

Re:iTunes

[leenoble_uk]

I don't normally bother to correct people's spelling but I'm in a bad mood. Forgive me.
Am I in a minority of people now who know how to spell the word LOSE?
It's LOSE not LOOSE. LOOSE means slack and RHYMES WITH NOOSE as in rope to kill yourself with.
LOSE RHYMES WITH BOOZE.
LOOSER is what something is when it is made not quite so tight.
LOSER is probably the name people are now going to throw in my general direction. Screw my karma rating. Learn to fricking spell people, you're (that's "you're" with an apostrophe because it's ("it's" with an apostrophe because it's short for "it is") short for "you are" and not "your" because it belongs to you) supposed to be educated.

One good aspect

[pbooktebo]

One thing that could be effective here is the following:
1. A song is playing in Starbucks.
2. You like what you hear.
3. You go to the "jukebox to go" (or whatever they will call it), click the "buy what's on now" button, and pay $1 for the song and $1 for the CD ($2.00 total).

I keep thinking about the scene in High Fidelity, where John Cusack says "I'm going to sell a copy of x album right now" and then puts on a record. Sure enough, someone comes up and asks what is playing and buys it. The impulse buy in an environment is powerful. I often hear things in record stores, etc. and would love to have an easy way to buy it.