I'll take a double mocha latte and fill up my iPod

Starbucks looks to device fill-up alongside coffee offering

25 January 2006 22:39 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Customers at Starbucks may soon be able to say "I'll take a double mocha latte and fill up my iPod", according to an article in the New York Daily News in America.

The coffee chain has been selling music CDs in some of its stores called Hear Music Coffeehouses via what the company calls Hear Music media bars.

The service offers more than 1 million songs digitally to allow them to create custom CDs or burn an album in minutes.

The media bars will also allow customers to listen to any physical CD in the store by simply scanning the bar code.

However due to success with the format and the company's urge to expand into entertainment the paper believes that Starbucks could soon be introducing on-the-fly MP3 downloads.

"A lot of our customers are asking for device fill-up, and going forward we'll do that", said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes.

The chain hasn't yet set a date for moving into music player downloads and is still talking to various companies about the technology, Lombard said.

In a previous statement the company's chairman, Howard Schultz, has said: “Starbucks has changed the rules of engagement for the music industry”.