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Analysis: Digital Music Downloads at Starbucks from Zune?

Authored by Jay Baage on January 28, 2007 - 9:15pm.
Zunemaster at a Starbucks (via Flickr)Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz last week gave some insight into the company’s future music strategy at a talk in New York, stating: "Within 12 months, probably, you're going to be able to walk into a Starbucks and digitally be able to fill up your MP3 player with music”. He also added that "over the next 6 to 18 months you will see us look at it, perhaps test it”. The question is - why would people buy their music at Starbucks in the first place?

It is fairly clear why it makes sense for Starbucks to sell music: diversification of revenue streams; increasing foot traffic and time spent in stores; as well as the opportunity to increase sales per customer. However, Starbucks removed CD-burning machines out of most stores that trialed them last year. It seemed like a natural step to replace those machines with technology for downloading music to MP3 players, since the general trend in the music industry is towards digital delivery - so far so good. But the question remains, why would people buy their music at Starbucks?
tags: Music | iPod | Apple | Microsoft | Commerce | MP3 | iTunes | Retail | Starbucks | Zune | Sansa | Gremlin |