A coffee and a tune: Starbucks to give away iTunes downloads

New York: Starbucks has announced that it will give away millions of songs via iTunes downloads starting next month, marking the launch of its wireless music service in association with Apple Inc.

Starbuck''s says that when customers enter a participating location, their device will automatically recognise the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store using a high-speed Wi-Fi wireless network that has no connection fee or hotspot login. Customers will be able to browse, search and freely preview millions of songs, including a new "Now Playing" service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that moment, to facilitate buying and downloading them directly on to their devices.

According to a company statement, starting 2 October, till 7 November, customers can receive "song of the day" cards at over 10,000 Starbucks locations across the United States, which can be redeemed at Apple''s iTunes store for a complimentary song that is hand-selected by Starbucks Entertainment.

According to a press note on Starbuck''s website, the Apple and Starbucks partnership will allow customers to browse through the in-store WiFi, search, preview, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks, onto their iPod touch, iPhone, PC or Mac with iTunes software while at a participating location.

Prices and selection on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store are the same as on the regular iTunes Store.

Starbucks says that will give away around 1.5 million downloads a day, for a total of more than 50 million free songs.

Customers will have until the end of the year to redeem the song on iTunes.