Starbucks' Music Plans Seem To Be Drinking Decaf
from the would-you-like-coffee-with-that-digital-download? dept
Back in March, we wrote about Starbucks' latest idea to build brick and mortar digital music stores that also served Starbucks' coffee. The idea was kind of like the Starbucks kiosks found in various bookstores and supermarkets, but where Starbucks actually owned the music store as well. Instead of being a regular music store, however, the store would just have a bunch of Tablet PC kiosks where shoppers could listen to songs and burn CDs. Still, at some point, they planned to also move some of those kiosks into their regular coffee shops, despite a phenomenally long history of similar kiosks (for burnable music and software) failing on a regular basis. Now, Xueilonox writes in with a link to an MSNBC update saying that Starbucks keeps delaying the rollout, and more questions are being raised about whether or not it makes any sense (how many Starbucks' employees do you think can fix a busted CD burner?). Meanwhile, Xueilonox also submits a first-hand account of the first HearNow music store testing this offering out, noting the big complaint everyone has pointed out from the very beginning of this concept: the prices suck. They're more expensive than buying a typical CD or downloading and burning the music yourself at home using any one of the (way too) many digital download stores available. Obviously, Starbucks' has done a fantastic job charging a lot more than others for many coffee drinkers' daily caffeine fix, but does that mean they can do the same for music?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Hey Now, Mike!
With the amount of Starbucks out there, they will simply do the thing most chains do: have an outside firm (or a department within the firm) who are on a hotline (1-866-ITS-BROK) who will drive in and fix what's not working at the chain.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Poison Poisson Process
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hey Now, Mike!
Kiosks, on the other hand, are open to anyone without any kind of training. My experience (and, yes, I was somewhat involved with a business in this space) with kiosks in music and software stores shows that the public bangs the crap out of these things and they break fantastically quickly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fluffy, sweet and impossible not to love!
[ link to this | view in thread ]