Starbucks Adds 45 More Hear Music “Media Bars”

The Starbucks coffee chain will expand its Hear Music “media bar” CD-burning concept into 45 Starbucks stores in Seattle and Austin, Texas, later this month.

Starbuck’s expansion on the music front follows the establishment in March of a pilot Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse in Santa Monica. “We’re going to be able to enhance the overall coffee experience for our customers,” Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard said. Added vp music and entertainment Don MacKinnon, “This is bringing the CD-burning experience into traditional Starbucks stores.”

The media-bar includes self-service touch-screen stations created by HP. Using a stylus on the screens, consumers can access editorial content, listen to tracks and albums, burn CDs of existing albums or customized compilations from a catalog of 150,000 songs, create artwork for the CDs and pay for them. Pricing for the custom CD’s is $8.99 for the first seven songs and 99 cents for each additional song.