Three new Starbucks open each day, chairman says
PROMENADE — Music lovers can now browse thousands of tracks, compile mixes and burn their own CDs, all while downing a latte at the first-ever “Hear Music Coffeehouse,” which is owned by Starbucks. Top executives for Starbucks and Hewlett Packard met on the Third Street Promenade Tuesday to announce the new venture, which they called “the next big thing” in technology. Customers who pay $6.99 will have one hour to pick six tracks and have them burned to CD. Extra tracks cost $1 each.
Starbucks has more than 7,500 outlets across the country and serves more than 30 million customers a day, making it the most frequented merchant in the world, said Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ chairman. An average of three new Starbucks are opened each day, Schultz added.
“Starbucks can be as relevant in the music industry as it has been in coffee,” he said.
“Starbucks can be as relevant in the music industry as it has been in coffee.” — — HOWARD SCHULTZ Starbucks’ chairman
Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, who attended the opening event, said the outlet bodes well for the future of the Promenade. He said too often local officials focus on keeping chain outlets out, but there also needs to be a focus on showcasing new ideas that generate a buzz. Asked if Starbucks is taking over the world, Bloom replied, “It’s not hard to find a Starbucks cup of coffee nowadays, but it is a changing world when it comes to finding music. There’s room for everybody... The reality is this kind of approach is dependent on the technology that an HP brings and the retail savvy that Starbucks brings.”
There are seven stations in the Hear Music Coffeehouse where customers can create CDs. Don MacKinnon, vice president of music and entertainment for Starbucks, called the setup a “listening bar,” where customers can browse tracks by album or artist, or look at what popular artists listen to. Top picks and interviews with artists like Yo-Yo Ma and the Rolling Stones, among others, are already in the system.
The CD-burning service was launched Tuesday with a catalog of 20,000 songs, but officials said that catalog will grow to 150,000 in coming weeks. Schultz said 10 to 12 Seattle Starbucks will be outfitted with the equipment next and he expects 200 stores nationwide to offer the service by the end of the year. Within two years, every Starbucks in North America will be serving the custom CDs, he added.
Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard’s chairwoman and chief executive, said “every physical, analog process is going digital, mobile and virtual” — from photography and music to entertainment and health care.
“We get asked all the time, ‘What’s the next big thing?’” she said during the morning news conference in the Hear Music Coffeehouse on the Promenade’s 1400 block. “Welcome to the next big thing.”
“Welcome to the next big thing.” — — CARLY FIORINA Chairwoman and chief executive, Hewlett Packard
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 17, 2004. Read the original PDF.