Spotify and Starbucks have started rolling out their official partnership in 7,500 of the coffee chain’s stores in the US – and, in a limited way, the duo are trying to pinch users from Shazam.
Customers looking to identify music playing overhead in Starbucks stores may usually reach for Shazam and its smart technology. But now there’s an alternative.
As you can see in the video below, the official Starbucks app will tell users what track is playing in any of the chain’s outlets at any one time.
It’s able to do so because those same outlets will be playing music from a playlist hooked up to Spotify’s centralised database.
These customers can then save these Starbucks-curated songs to a playlist on… you’ve guessed it, Spotify.
Starbucks says it has 10 million My Starbucks Rewards loyalty members in the US alone.
Interestingly, Shazam does not currently push its free users to Spotify in territories such as the UK, Germany, Mexico and Brazil.
In the UK, for example, Shazam instead links through to Spotify rival Deezer and the now-defunct Rdio.
“Music has played a pivotal role in our stores for over 40 years and we have been at the forefront of how to integrate it into a retail environment,” said Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks.
“Today is the next era in that experience. We are merging the physical and digital, providing new access points for Spotify as they continue to grow globally, placing more control into our customers’ hands and giving artists the world’s largest stage for them to share their talent.”
The new Starbucks music platform is available to both iPhone and Android users within Starbucks Mobile App.
In addition to being able to discover music playing overhead at a participating Starbucks store, Starbucks Mobile App users will now be able to view recently played songs, save songs to a personal playlist on Spotify, “Love” songs to influence future Starbucks playlists as well as share these songs on social networks and “Play on Spotify.”
Spotify users can also find new playlists from Starbucks as well as Starbucks most popular music from the past 20 years on Spotify.
These features are accessible on Spotify’s Free and Premium services.
“Starbucks shares our passion for music and desire to create the best, personalized experience for users and customers,” said Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.
“Together with Starbucks, we’re creating a unique new digital music experience that offers Starbucks customers and Spotify users the ability to discover even more music at Starbucks and enjoy that same music and more on Spotify, whenever they want and wherever they are.”
In addition, Starbucks will also begin a new weekly feature in the Starbucks app highlighting both established and emerging artists.
Starbucks partners have also begun influencing the music played in their stores by choosing from a variety of Starbucks-curated playlists and creating “Store Favorites” playlist. This is made possible via a mobile app powered by a new PlayNetwork CURIO hardware device that delivers branded entertainment and media to retail stores.
In 1994, a dedicated entertainment team began selecting original CDs spanning a diversity of musical genres and geographies.Music Business Worldwide
