Starbucks brings*Hear Music catalog to Apple's iTunes

[AppleInsider]

Starbucks and Apple Comptuer on Thursday announced the availability of the Starbucks Hear Music catalog on the iTunes Store, giving iTunes users the ability to preview, buy and download a wide variety of Starbucks popular Hear Music titles.

"Hear Music produces a wide range of albums showcasing new and classic artists including the well-known Artist Choice series, Opus Collections, Debut Series releases by emerging artists, as well as new works from major artists," Apple said.

Starbucks Hear Music offerings will be available in a special new Starbucks Entertainment area within the iTunes Store and will include a wide variety of popular content as well as playlists created specifically for iTunes.

“We’re excited to work with iTunes to add a significant new digital experience to the innovative buying experience we’ve been offering in Starbucks locations for more than 10 years," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. “Many of our customers want to listen to our music on their iPods, and now that will be easier than ever.”

The Starbucks Entertainment area within iTunes will feature a wide variety of playlists including unique music hand-picked by the same Starbucks Hear Music content team responsible for selecting the music played in Starbucks stores around the world.



Playlists and content will be updated frequently and will also include digital versions of many of Hear Music’s popular CD series and co-releases such as the Marvin Gaye Opus Collection and Sonya Kitchell’s Words Came Back to Me, which was released as part of Starbucks ongoing Hear Music Debut CD series, the two companies said. Customers can purchase either the entire playlist or individual tracks from the Starbucks Hear Music playlists.

Also on Thursday, Apple announced that the iTunes Store now features over 3.5 million songs, 65,000 podcasts, 20,000 audiobooks, over 5,000 music videos and 220 television shows.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[nay_acharya]

oh and the 75+ movies you yanks have too!

I cant wait till all the services go international, or to the UK anyway!

I have a strange thirst for some coffee now....

[JeffDM]

I think Apple might do better if they offered some way to buy new tunes through a kiosk.

[rain]

Must be a slow news day... like seriously?

[mmmdoughnuts]

Oooh. They could have them in all of the Apple stores. Plug in your iPod, choose music, insert credit card number.... Ooo! Better yet you could have your credit card number on the iPod and then you could skip a step and download as soon as you select it. Ooo! Ooo! You could put all of your financial information on the iPod and buy anything by just sticking your iPod into the iKeosk at the grocery store or the gas station. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! you could put all of your medical records on it so when you went from doctor to doctor no one would wonder about previous diagnoses or your blood type. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! We could put all of our personal identification on it so when we could give up all of our drivers licences and passports and just look at all of the information on the iPodiDendification to verify that we are ourselves. Ooooooo... then you could leave it in the back of the bus and some bum could steal you. Oh well. nice thoughts.

[Clive At Five]

I can see it now...

iPod + Starbucks

Monitor your Latte no-whip-half-caff-no-foam-shot-of-raspberry's temperature while you peruse nutrition facts about your caramel-apple danish with the new iPod + Starbucks package. Comes with an emo-sensing taser to ward off misfortune whilst listening to your Stock Analyst's PodCasts.

*Shaw Wu not included.



-Clive

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Originally Posted by mmmdoughnuts

Oooh. They could have them in all of the Apple stores. Plug in your iPod, choose music, insert credit card number.... Ooo! Better yet you could have your credit card number on the iPod and then you could skip a step and download as soon as you select it. Ooo! Ooo! You could put all of your financial information on the iPod and buy anything by just sticking your iPod into the iKeosk at the grocery store or the gas station. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! you could put all of your medical records on it so when you went from doctor to doctor no one would wonder about previous diagnoses or your blood type. Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! We could put all of our personal identification on it so when we could give up all of our drivers licences and passports and just look at all of the information on the iPodiDendification to verify that we are ourselves. Ooooooo... then you could leave it in the back of the bus and some bum could steal you. Oh well. nice thoughts.

This may be exactly what you will do in a few years with your iPhone.
Think of it as a digital wallet.
Paypal is already attempting to do something similar.

You joke, but imagine the possibilities if you had an iPhone with an iSight and Bluetooth built-in.
You could point your iPhone's iSight at a barcode
The iPhone gets the products specs
The iPhone gets the products ratings from Amazon
You decide to add it to your wish list

Or scan each item as your grocery shopping and have a running total before you get to the register.

[BRussell]

I don't get it. Aren't these just like celebrity playlists from Starbucks?

[sharp_spot]

I'm probably being thick, but I can find no reference to this on Apple.com or in the iTunes Store.

Little help?

[mmmdoughnuts]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella

Or scan each item as your grocery shopping and have a running total before you get to the register.

I guess my point is more about security and ID theft. In europe, there are vending machines with phone numbers on them. Dial one and out pops a coke. Charged right to your cell phone bill. Pretty cool.

I am really worried about the utility of these convergence/data systems being hyjacked or worse becoming manditory and then you are a nobody without an iPod and a biometric check with a drop of blood.

[mmmdoughnuts]

Originally Posted by sharp_spot

Little help?

http://www.hearmusic.com/#PRESS

[papagrande]

The hear music selection is now on itunes. I just looked at it.

[monkeyastronaut]

Originally Posted by mmmdoughnuts

I guess my point is more about security and ID theft. In europe, there are vending machines with phone numbers on them. Dial one and out pops a coke. Charged right to your cell phone bill. Pretty cool.

that is so cool. basically you turn your cell phone into a debit/credit card.

[krankerz]

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...Grouping?id=41

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

I think Apple might do better if they offered some way to buy new tunes through a kiosk.

Absolutely. There have been a number of efforts in that direction here in California. There is (was?) a music store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica that looks like a funky little record store, but it has a coffee bar and individual download areas... I don't remember what format the downloads were...

[deckard]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella

This may be exactly what you will do in a few years with your iPhone.
Think of it as a digital wallet.
Paypal is already attempting to do something similar.

You joke, but imagine the possibilities if you had an iPhone with an iSight and Bluetooth built-in.
You could point your iPhone's iSight at a barcode
The iPhone gets the products specs
The iPhone gets the products ratings from Amazon
You decide to add it to your wish list

Or scan each item as your grocery shopping and have a running total before you get to the register.

Believe it or not, that's old tech. Apple would be better off using RFID - no camera required. Also, while on the subject of getting ratings etc, why bother with ratings? Why not have the iPhone find the cheapest advertised price within XX distance of your current location? The iPhone could know your current location if it had built-in GPS and it would simply display a Google Earth map on the screen with a data overlay of the store details. Hell, it could even give you driving directions.

Now THAT I like.

[deckard]

Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut

that is so cool. basically you turn your cell phone into a debit/credit card.

Available on a trial basis in Melbourne Australia for parking meters and Coke machines... pretty cool, but a bit cumbersome at the moment.

The parking meter one is a great idea - but of course the red tape is killing it: instead of paying for the parking via your cell phone and then being sent an SMS when the time is say 5 minutes away from expiring - the SMS could be asking if you'd like to extend the time and all you do is reply with the included code and BINGO, time extended... but no, we're not allowed to have that type of benefit because parking is all about staying for 1 hour (or whatever the time restriction is) and then leaving... stupid if you ask me. How many people can get anything done in a city in 1 hour?

Still, the whole 'mobile payment gateway' has legs - but it'll all be about RFID in the future and when vendors and service providers integrate that with cell phones, the mobile payment world will explode! Banks will sell telco services! Why not? Telstra (the national semi-government owned telco in Australia) already has a banking license - they have to as they provide credit services to clients - post pay phone bills are a credit service believe it or not!

Later.

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Originally Posted by deckard

Believe it or not, that's old tech. Apple would be better off using RFID - no camera required. Also, while on the subject of getting ratings etc, why bother with ratings? Why not have the iPhone find the cheapest advertised price within XX distance of your current location? The iPhone could know your current location if it had built-in GPS and it would simply display a Google Earth map on the screen with a data overlay of the store details. Hell, it could even give you driving directions.

Now THAT I like.

Widespread adoption of RFID is still years away.
Barcodes are doable today.
Japan is already doing this on a limited scale.

Ratings are good when you are shopping and trying to decide between two or more products.

Originally Posted by mmmdoughnuts

I guess my point is more about security and ID theft.

Your cell iPhone is stolen.
You call Apple and notify them.
The GPS coordinates are sent to law enforcement officials.
If they are unable to recover it easily...
Apple initiates a self-destruct sequence.
The stolen iPhone is bricked.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella

Widespread adoption of RFID is still years away.

I'd be concerned about security anyway. In the past, it's been shown to be an easy sniff. That may be good for inventory management, but not good if you are trying to keep information out of the hands that shouldn't have it.

The "fix" that is used in US passports is a metal foil embedded into the booklet so that scanners can only sniff it when it is open. I'm not sure if there are better security solutions now or not, it's not something that I track.