Your local barista now doubles as a DJ.
Spotify and Starbucks have inked a large, multi-year deal that will promote Spotify Premium whilst giving Starbucks employees and customers the opportunity to choose the music played in-store. Along with making your coffee, Starbucks baristas will now be tasked with picking the music at each location.
The new agreement will link 7,000 Starbucks stores in the United States with Spotify’s 60 million users, to create what both companies are touting as “a first-of-its-kind music ecosystem”. Starbucks employees (or “partners” as the company calls them) will be given complimentary access to Spotify Premium allowing them to influence the in-store playlist at Starbucks locations.
Employees will achieve this “using tools provided by Spotify,” although that’s as specific as the press release gets. Their playlists will then be made available to all Spotify users via a dedicated Starbucks section of the app.
“Music will remain a key component of our coffeehouse and retail experience, however we will continue to evolve the format of our music offerings to ensure we’re offering relevant options for our customers,” the company told Billboard.
The partnership will begin its rollout this fall in the United States before expanding to Canada and the United Kingdom later in the year. [via Billboard]