ENTERTAINMENT BIZ - Starbucks & iTunes Bring Complimentary Digital Music and Video - April 2008

Offerings to Customers with Starbucks “Pick of the Week” - More Than 1.5 Million Downloads Every Week Driving Discovery of New Music and Music Videos

SEATTLE Washington USA .-- (BUSINESS WIRE) - Thursday April 17, 2008

Starbucks and iTunes today announced Pick of the Week, a new program offering coffeehouse customers a chance to discover complimentary new music and music videos each week. Pick of the Week featured artists include a great line-up with Carly Simon, Duffy, Counting Crows, Adele, Sia, Hilary McRae and many more.

Each Tuesday, more than 7,000 Starbucks company-operated locations in the US will stock a new Pick of the Week download card redeemable on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) for a complimentary song or music video hand-picked by the Starbucks Entertainment team and iTunes. The first Pick of the Week, available starting today at participating Starbucks locations, is Counting Crows’ new song, “Washington Square.”

“With Pick of the Week, Starbucks will leverage its trusted curatorial voice in music and entertainment through its partnership with iTunes to provide our customers with a world-class digital discovery experience,” said Ken Lombard, president Starbucks Entertainment.

“Pick of the Week provides an incredible way for Starbucks customers to discover great new music and videos for free on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With the world’s largest online catalog of music and video there is truly something for everyone.”

In October 2007, Starbucks and iTunes teamed up to launch Song of the Day, which offered Starbucks customers the opportunity to pick up a new complimentary download hand-picked by Starbucks Entertainment and iTunes each day for a month. Customer response to Song of the Day was unprecedented and resulted in more than 6 million songs downloaded. Realizing that a large audience hungry to discover new music and entertainment content had been tapped, Starbucks and iTunes worked together to create an ongoing version of the program to drive discovery and sales for great artists.

Once Pick of the Week cards are distributed, customers will then have up to 60 days from the date they are available to redeem their complimentary digital entertainment offering on iTunes.

Pick of the Week is the next phase in a partnership between Starbucks and Apple which began with the launch of the Starbucks Entertainment Area within iTunes in October 2006 and the launch of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at select Starbucks locations in October of 2007. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks lets customers at participating Starbucks use the Wi-Fi network to wirelessly download music onto their iPhone, iPod touch or computer with no Wi-Fi connection fees or hotspot login.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks is currently available in select Starbucks locations in the New York, Seattle and San Francisco metropolitan areas on its way to a national service rollout. Starbucks also offers the exclusive Now Playing feature on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, which allows customers to instantly preview, buy and download the music currently playing overhead in participating Starbucks locations.

About Starbucks Coffee Company

Since 1971, Starbucks Coffee Company has been committed to ethically sourcing and roasting the highest quality arabica coffee in the world. Today, with nearly 16,000 stores and more than 170,000 partners (employees) in 44 countries.

(Business Wire)

© Copyright: National Radio. Any use of these materials, whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized in writing by National Radio. Contact: nationalradio@yahoo.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED