Starbucks: Rip Music While Drinking Coffee

Starbucks Rip Music While Drinking Coffee
Starbucks Coffee today announced the national launch of the Hear Music media bar. This new service, powered by HP technology, allows Starbucks customers to create personalized CD compilations and burn full-length albums from a vast digital library of songs. In the first phase of a multi-phased national rollout, 45 Starbucks retail locations will offer this new music service.

The initial Hear Music media bar rollout, which builds on the success of the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse in Santa Monica, CA, will reach 15 Starbucks stores in Seattle beginning October 18, and 30 stores in Austin, Texas starting on October 25. The rollout will continue throughout November.

Inside participating Starbucks locations, customers will interact with the Hear Music media bar at self-service screens placed throughout the store. Using a stylus pen on a touch screen, customers will be able to:

Explore musical interests through exclusive Hear Music editorial features and recommendations

Quickly burn existing albums or create custom CD compilations, song by song, from an initial catalog of more than 150,000 hand-picked songs covering a wide array of genres

Select personalized album artwork and titles for custom CDs

Listen to full-length songs and albums before purchasing

Pay for CD creations using a Starbucks Card or most majo