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Spotify announces Starbucks alliance
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 19 May 2015
Ahead of its big announcement tomorrow, Spotify today confirmed an alliance with Starbucks in the US – set to extend to the UK and Canada – which will result in a “first-of-its-kind music ecosystem”. That may or may not incorporate some well fit video goodness, depending on what tomorrow’s big Spotify announcement turns out to be. Imagine if it’s all about tea.
Anyway, back to today’s news, and what will this “first-of-its-kind music ecosystem” involve? Mainly Starbucks-branded playlists on Spotify and the chance for Starbucks loyalty card holders to influence the music being played in the coffee seller’s stores. But with lots of froth and not much tax being paid, I’d imagine.
Spotify Premium will be promoted in-store at Starbucks as part of the deal, I know that much. Possibly using the slogan, “You’re all paying how much on some shitty coffee? For fucks sake, why not pay for your music too?” Printed in bold type on t-shirts. And coffee cups. And unused tax returns.
Starbucks, of course, had its own label for a while, and continued to sell CDs in many of its stores until relatively recently, so it does have some legitimacy in claiming to have a long association with music. And boy do they run with that in their big quote.
“For over 40 years, music has played a vital role in Starbucks third place experience”, says the firm’s CEO Howard Schultz, ‘third place experience’ being something Starbucks execs like to say, apparently. “It [music] has inspired our partners and customers in unexpected ways that have helped to shape the global pop culture”.
I think that’s possibly a roundabout way to say ‘people like music’, but I don’t have time to stop and think about it now, because he’s still talking.
“So we are delighted and honoured to bring Spotify directly to our customers”, Schultz goes on. “Throughout its history, Starbucks has worked closely with the music industry, offering a variety of artists a platform for their work. By connecting Spotify’s world-class streaming platform into our world-class store and digital ecosystem, we are reinventing the way our millions of global customers discover music”.
