Highlighting the company’s new partnership with Apple which will provide iPhone and iPod touch users with free Wi-Fi access to the iTunes music store, coffee retailer Starbucks is planning to give away millions of cards good for selected songs from Apple’s iTunes store.
Starbucks says it plans to give away 1.5 million downloads per day from October 2 through November 7 at more than 10,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, for a total of over 50 million songs. The cards will be redeemable on the iTunes store for a complimentary song selected by the Starbucks Entertainment division. The first free song will be Bob Dylan’s “Joker Man,” and subsequent selections are expected to dip into Starbucks’ own catalog of music content (including its recent distribution arrangement with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney) as well as highlight artists like Joni Mitchell, Joss Stone, John Mayer, Annie Lennox, and Band of Horses.
Starbucks’ support for Apple’s Wi-Fi store will debut at about 600 Starbucks locations in Seattle and New York beginning October 2, with expansion to other major U.S. markets scheduled throughout 2008 and 2009. By the end of 2008, Starbucks estimates about 25 percent of its stores will offer access to the service.
