The New York Times reports the deal was announced yesterday. Starbucks will partner with Spotify and promote the music streaming platform in its stores while allowing customers to access and edit playlists the chain will use from the autumn. An expansion to Canada and the UK is planned for the future.
Coming just months after Starbucks ended the long-running sale of CDs in its stores, the deal could work out well for both companies involved as well as the customers. Starbucks employees will enjoy an added benefit as around 150,000 workers will be receiving free subscriptions to Spotify Premium from this summer.
In a conference call with the New York Times, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is reported to have said “We’re really making the barista the D.J. here” while Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz explained: “By connecting Spotify’s world-class streaming platform into our world-class store and digital ecosystem, we are reinventing the way our millions of global customers discover music.”
Spotify will be pleased to gain some extra publicity ahead of the anticipated launch of Apple’s new music streaming service next month. Spotify customers will be able to collect points through the My Starbucks Rewards customer loyalty scheme as the platform will be integrated into the Starbucks mobile app used by 16 million people in the US.
The deal has been described as a “multi-year” partnership but the exact terms have not been disclosed. Starbucks has over 7,000 US stores while Spotify has a total userbase of around 60 million people across 58 countries, around 25% of whom pay for the company’s ad-free premium option.
