Even with the recent push back against streaming services over their per-stream royalty payments, their impact on the music industry continues to grow at a remarkable rate. The largest company of them all, Spotify, announced another massive corporate partnership today that will bring the service to a whole new swath of customers. According to a news release today, Spotify has partnered with coffee store giant, Starbucks, where it will be integrated into the Seattle-based company's 7,000 United States stores and 10M member My Starbucks Loyalty Program. The partnership will allow baristas to create playlists that will then be played at their local store.
The rollout will begin in the United States this fall and then move to Canada and the UK shortly thereafter.
"Starbucks has a rich music heritage and customers who are passionate music fans which makes us incredibly proud to be their music partner," said Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify in a statement. "Spotify has powered more than 25 Billion hours of listening around the world so far, and we're looking forward to creating unique in-store music experiences while also making more than 20 years of popular Starbucks music available to both Starbucks customers and Spotify's 60 Million global music fans."
150,000 Starbucks U.S. employees will receive Spotify Premium subscriptions, soon followed by those in Canada and the U.K. This will help expand the base of paying members for the streaming giant, a complaint labels and artists have levied against them.
"For over 40 years, music has played a vital role in Starbucks Third Place experience - inspiring our partners and customers in unexpected ways that have helped to shape the global pop culture. And we are delighted and honored to bring Spotify directly to our customers," said Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks in a statement. "Throughout its history, Starbucks has worked closely with the music industry, offering a variety of artists a platform for their work. 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."
The move highlights Starbucks' shift away from physical music distribution towards digital forms of audio. They recently ditched selling physical CDs in their stores, much to the chagrin of indie bands, and are clearly moving ahead with a shift towards digital with streaming.
