Spotify and Starbucks Partners to Reinvent the Coffee-Over-Music Experience

Music has played a vital role in Starbucks.

Coffee is best served with music. That’s why Spotify and Starbucks are working together to offer great, curated music to millions of coffee lovers in the United States. The multi-year partnership brings Spotify’s premium streaming service to over 7,000 Starbucks stores in the country this fall and to Canada and United Kingdom later this year.

As part of the deal, Starbucks employees will get a Spotify premium subscription for free. My Starbucks Rewards (MSR) loyalty members will also have a special access to Starbucks music on Spotify, including in-store playlists and the capability to earn credits or “Stars as Currency.”

Starbucks will now curate its own music on Spotify, giving MSR members the perfect music–playlists featuring the most popular music from the past 20 years–for their coffee habits.

Music plays a crucial role in Starbucks’s business. The company popularized the coffee-over-music experience, making it the heart of its coffeehouse culture. Starbucks started offering CDs, which featured popular music artists in 1994. The tradition continues today with its partnership with Spotify.

In a press release, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, said that connecting to Spotify’s world-class streaming platform will reinvent how Starbucks’s millions of customers discover music.

“For over forty 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.  And we are delighted and honored to bring Spotify directly to our customers,” Schultz said.