Starbucks teams with Spotify to let customers influence in-store playlists

NEW YORK — Starbucks may have halted CD sales in its stores recently but the world's largest coffeehouse chain hasn't given up on music.

On Monday, Starbucks and Spotify announced a new partnership that will connect the latter's streaming music service with the 10 million members of Starbuck's loyalty program.

Customers will be able to listen to — and influence — specially curated in-store Starbucks playlists on Spotify. And they'll be able to continue to listen to playlists after they leave the stores, either through the Starbucks or Spotify apps.

Spotify customers will also be able to earn Starbucks reward points, the first time Starbucks loyalty points are available outside its own stores.

The multi-year partnership will be phased in starting this summer at U.S. Starbucks stores, followed by stores in Canada and the UK.

"Almost from the very beginning music has been a very significant part of the Starbucks experience," Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says. "We think we have a historic opportunity to take the best of a bricks and mortar consumer brand, combine it with a digital platform and obviously the music and business acumen that Spotify has around building subscribers, and do something together that will enhance the music industry and most importantly provide further value for artists."

As part of the partnership, Starbucks 150,000 U.S.-based employees will get Spotify Premium subscriptions. "What we're envisioning is really centered around collaborative playlisting," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says. "We're making the barista the DJ," he says.

Customers will be able to influence the music that is being played in a store via the Starbucks and Spotify apps, with each store having its own local playlists.

Starbucks has 7,000 company-operated stores in the U.S. Spotify has 60 million global users.

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