Slashdot Mirror


Starbucks - Your Next Music Superstore?

prostoalex writes "The Fast Company magazine looks into the next horizon in music retailing - allowing customers to choose the songs they like in relaxed environment and burning custom CDs from digital copies of the content. The claimed innovator in the field is none other than Seattle-based Starbucks: 'This August, Starbucks will install individual music-listening stations, with CD-burning capabilities, in 10 existing Starbucks locations in Seattle. From there, the concept rolls out to Texas in the fall, including Starbucks stores in the music mecca of Austin. With the help of technology partner Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks plans to have 100 coffee shops across the country enabled with Hear Music CD-burning stations by next Christmas, and more than 1,000 locations up and running by the end of 2005.' And what's wrong with traditional music outlets? 'Schultz and MacKinnon came to believe that the core Starbucks customer, an affluent 25- to 50-year-old who's likelier to be tuned in to NPR than to MTV or one of the nine gazillion radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., probably feels ignored by the music industry.'"

5 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. 10 existing Starbucks locations in Seattle by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's 0.00000001% of the Seattle locations.

  2. Re:Sit down and enjoy the coffee by tntguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    An epic task, given the nature of caffeine.

  3. Size/Price? by xOleanderx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I look forward to buying a Venti cd.

  4. Re:Sit down and enjoy the coffee by Steve+Embalmer · · Score: 4, Funny

    keep customers sitting down longer in their stores, consuming their products

    Heh, just what I need, more of their products. I get no sleep as it is :)

  5. The three customers.. by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Funny

    who don't have their own MP3 player and/or laptop will probably appreciate this.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.