Starbucks Opens first music cafe in the US[views:1496][posts:6]__________________________________ [Mar 16,2004 7:51pm - succubus ""] http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n...sic_nm/leisure_starbucks_music_dc_4 By Duncan Martell and Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp on Tuesday unveiled a new kind of coffee shop serving up custom music CDs along with foamy coffee drinks. Years of customer queries about the music piped into its ubiquitous coffee shops prompted Starbucks to tap into a new revenue stream, which might also keep customers in its stores long enough to order another latte. "We do see this as an add-on to the Starbucks experience, but we also think there is a real business here," said Don MacKinnon, Starbucks vice president, music and entertainment. Using a variety of computer gear and support provided by Hewlett-Packard Co., Starbucks customers will be able to record five songs for $6.99 -- about twice the price of a double-tall latte -- in about three minutes. Terms of the venture were not disclosed. "I'm not getting into specifics, but we profit as a business with any business-to-business venture involving Starbucks," said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive at a news conference on Tuesday to kick off the first Starbucks music cafe at a former Hear Music store in Santa Monica, California. Starbucks had already offered high-speed wireless Internet access, or "WiFi," in more than 2,700 cafes, seeking to keep customers in the stores beyond the busy morning rush hour. "The goal here is how does a customer get their music in about the same time as it takes to get a grande cappuccino," said Felice Swapp, director of strategic initiatives for HP. Additional songs will go for 99 cents each, with up to 80 minutes of music on one disk. Customers now can buy only single tracks, but ultimately complete albums will be available. The company has signed deals with most major record labels and many independent recording companies, MacKinnon said. "These are great times for the record industry," said Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of Vivendi Universal's Interscope music label. "Companies like this can move an attitude. This is where digital music will take off." Singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright (news) was also at the news conference and planned to give a concert there later Tuesday. Founded in 1990, Hear Music, which operates four music stores in Santa Monica, Palo Alto, Berklee and Seattle, was acquired by Starbucks in 1999. Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz told Reuters the company was not looking to acquire any more music store companies. "We have no plans to engage in any dialogue to buy a music chain," he said, adding the goal was to enhance but preserve the "Starbucks Experience." Ten more music coffee house stores will roll out in Starbucks' home town of Seattle in traditional Starbucks locations this spring and Starbucks hopes to expand rapidly from there. A spokeswoman said the company aspires to expand the service to 2,500 stores in two years. Between now and the end of 2004, the company will explore opening up two to three additional Hear Music coffee houses, but it was unknown whether existing Hear Music stores will be remodeled, or whether new ones would be constructed. Starbucks world-wide chain now includes more than 7,600 cafes and executives foresee it growing to more than 25,000. Palo Alto, California-based HP supplied about 70 of its Tablet PCs, workstations and CD publishing and printing systems, along with its trademark printers at the music cafe. HP also designed the user interface and the software. The store uses HP's data storage gear and HP ProLiant servers store the more than 10,000 available albums and 100,000 song titles. "We have done it in a way that a person will walk out of Starbucks with something that feels like they bought it at a store," Swapp said. "It's allowing your typical Uncle Bob to start getting into this digital mobile lifestyle." HP in January also announced plans to soon sell a digital music player based on Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod player, which will be available by around June or July. In addition to the player, HP will also make Apple's popular iTunes digital music jukebox and online music store available to HP customers starting in March and April. Financial terms were not disclosed. When asked if HP's new player will be incorporated into the Starbucks musical venture, Schultz said: "It's a possibility. We'll have to see." (Additional reporting by Sue Zeidler in Los Angeles) |
| __________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 6:05am - succubus ""] i want a white mocha now |
| ______________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 6:22am - the_reverend ""] I'll get one soon. |
| _____________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 10:38am - MyDeadDoll ""] i want a chocolate browniw frappuccino since you're taking orders. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 10:42am - litacore ""] a soy latte gets you joni mitchell an iced americano gets you darkthrone |
| _______________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 10:49am - the_reverend ""] i'm drinking straight espresso now.. with some sugar. I didn't feel like walking downtown. |
| ___________________________________ [Mar 17,2004 10:58am - succubus ""] you are such an italiano |