JUNE 1, 2006

Hear Music

It is no shock to anyone who knows me well that I love Starbucks. When I think coffee, I think Starbucks. It has become so engrained in my weekly routine that I rarely sit back to think about how often I go there or spend money, or much less how I actually pass my time while I am there. It wasn’t until I read this Brand Autopsy post by John Moore that I began to think about why Starbucks has become so important to my routine. 

Upon reflection this is why I love Starbucks:

My Mac laptop has nearly everything that I need on it. (Ok, maybe not everything but almost …)

Starbucks has tables specifically with people who have computers and it provides wireless internet. I can work on a project, download music, check my e-mail and download my pictures.

I can plug my iPod ear bugs in and jam out to my music and have privacy if I want. 
I love coffee. I like to experiment with different flavors. Starbucks employees are knowledgeable about what I am ordering.

It has a comfortable environment allowing you to read, study, and visit with friends.

There are convenient locations both to my office and home.

So, when I read that Starbucks announced it was pulling its Hear Music Kiosks I was not surprised. While the idea of having music available to Starbucks customers was a great idea, the way it was delivered was not.

The kiosks, which allow you to chose from more than 150,000 songs and burn them to a CD, did not allow the customer to download directly to their iPod. (Which made me and other lose interest immediately). I personally haven’t bought a CD from a store in well over a year. I regularly use iTunes instead - a change that many have gone to.

To read about the Hear Music Kiosks click here (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=448&cookie%5Ftest=1).

John Moore was right on target when he said the following:

Starbucks has been successful because it made the coffee experience uncommonly better. So uncommonly better that we gladly pay a premium for it. Using that mindset, the Starbucks CD-burning stations have been unsuccessful because they failed to make the music download experience uncommonly better. It’s far easier for us to download music using our own computers than it is using the Starbucks CD-burning kiosk.

This CD-burning venture was doomed to fail from the start. Launching the service without the ability for customers to download music directly to their mp3 player was a major misstep. Starbucks may have attained success if they launched the service with mp3 downloads directly to a customer’s mp3 player. As a Starbucks consumer, I would be more apt to enjoy a latte while using their wi-fi service to download music from iTunes directly to my laptop than to sit down at the Hear Music kiosk, navigate through the clunky interface, and burn a music CD.

Starbucks representatives have said that the company is reworking the Hear Music idea. I wonder if they will embrace including the mp3 player in their next venture.