When it comes to customer engagement, customer experience, and brand loyalty, Starbucks never rests on its quite impressive laurels.
Engaging customers worldwide is an endless job. This week, Starbucks entered into a letter of intent with leading music streaming service, Spotify®, to establish a multi-year relationship that will link its 7,000 company-operated stores in the U.S. and 10 Million My Starbucks Rewards® loyalty members with Spotify’s more than 60 million global users to offer a first-of-its-kind music ecosystem.
According to the Starbucks’ website, this interconnectivity will allow Starbucks MSR members “unique access to Starbucks music on Spotify, the ability to influence in-store playlists as well as opportunities for Starbucks MSR members to earn “Stars as Currency.”
“For over 40 years, music has played a vital role in Starbucks Third Place experience–inspiring our partners and customers in unexpected ways that have helped to shape the global pop culture,” said Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. “And we are delighted and honored to bring Spotify directly to our customers. Throughout its history, Starbucks has worked closely with the music industry, offering a variety of artists a platform for their work. By connecting Spotify’s world-class streaming platform into our world-class store and digital ecosystem, we are reinventing the way our millions of global customers discover music.”
Through a phased rollout later this fall in Starbucks® U.S. company-owned locations, followed shortly after in Canada and the U.K., the agreement specifies that Starbucks and Spotify will collaborate on a next generation music ecosystem. As part of the agreement, Spotify Premium will be promoted in these stores.
Starbucks 150,000 U.S.-based partners (employees) will receive a Spotify Premium subscription, followed shortly after by partners in Canada and the U.K. This fall, Starbucks partners can help shape the in-store music programming using tools provided by Spotify. These partner-influenced playlists will then be accessible on Spotify via the Starbucks Mobile App so that customers can stream music anywhere, anytime from their mobile device.
What’s more, Spotify users will enjoy opportunities to obtain “Stars as Currency” for My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program. This will represent the first time that Starbucks loyalty program stars can be accessed by a third party for the benefit of Starbucks MSR members and Spotify users. Spotify will also include a dedicated section on Spotify featuring new playlists from Starbucks and its most popular music from the past 20 years, available to all Spotify users.
“Starbucks has a rich music heritage and customers who are passionate music fans which makes us incredibly proud to be their music partner,” said Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify. “Spotify has powered more than 25 Billion hours of listening around the world so far, and we’re looking forward to creating unique in-store music experiences while also making more than 20 years of popular Starbucks music available to both Starbucks customers and Spotify’s 60 Million global music fans.”