Starbucks to offer free iTunes access in stores

Apple and Starbucks said on Wednesday they had reached a deal that will allow people to buy songs wirelessly from Apple's iTunes music store in Starbucks coffee shops without paying WiFi connection fees.

Yahoo reports that the service will debut at more than 600 Starbucks stores in New York and Seattle on October 2. It will be expanded to other major U.S. cities later this year and next. What do they hope to accomplish with this? Simple. Starbucks is hoping to boost coffee sales as well as it's new music business, while Apple's iTunes seeks to sell more downloads. Coffee drinking customers with either the new iPod touch or an iPhone or even a computer running iTunes will be able to navigate to the new iTunes Wi-Fi music store without paying a connection fee. The way it is now, customers pay to use the Wi-Fi wireless Internet service provided by Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile at Starbucks' U.S. stores. While navigating, customers will be able to see what song is playing in the Starbucks store at that moment and buy it with a click. Now that is how money is made!

"We know a lot of people are going to be very happy with this new combination of coffee and iPods," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said. He said the two companies had been working on the deal for more than two years.

Starbucks had already been selling CDs in their stores, and even launched their own label, Hear Music. It released the latest album by Paul McCartney in June and has also signed artists like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. Brilliant marketing strategy all around I think. While I consider the people who might use this service, brain-dead sheep, you have to hand it to these companies. Just brilliant.