Starbucks Corp. announced that iTunes Wi-Fi music stores will be launched on October 2 in more than 600 company-operated and licensed stores, covering both New York and Seattle.
They will provide customers with more than 50 million free digital songs to download from iTunes in a move that will give a significant boost to their recent deal with Apple Inc. to launch a new wireless iTunes music service.
The new iTunes Wi-Fi music service, allows users the opportunity to wirelessly browse, search for, preview, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks onto their iPod touch, iPhone or PC or Mac, as long as the system has iTunes on it.
The promotional features includes Song of the Day, which allows the company to give away 1.5 million free downloads per day from a diverse line-up of artists for a total of more than 50 million free songs. Between October 2 and November 7, customers will receive Song of the Day cards, that will be redeemable on the Starbuck’s iTunes Stores for a complimentary song hand-selected by Starbucks Entertainment.
Moreover, Starbucks plans to introduce a new feature, called “Now Playing”, which will allow customers to use the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks to instantly preview what’s playing over the sound system and let them buy and download the music currently playing overhead.
As an additional feature, the company-operated stores in the US will sell the iTunes Digital Release Cards, which will contain a full album’s worth of music and features collectible artwork.
The Starbucks Card Plus Two, a limited edition re-loadable Starbucks card with added bonus value, will also be sold. When a Starbucks Card Plus Two is registered online, the cardholder will receive two complimentary song downloads of their choice on the US iTunes Store.