Select Starbucks Offering Free iTunes Access

It looks like Apple and Starbucks are partnering up to offer access to iTunes via free wireless internet in select Starbucks locations all over the San Francisco Bay area. Of course, the free wireless interent only applies to people accessing iTunes - if you are surfing the internet, you are still going to have to use the pay service offered by the T-Mobile network. The cool thing is, every Starbucks is configured separately so that the song playing through the store's speakers is the same song that appears on the front page of the user's iTunes. I think that is very innovative.

An article I read said that Apple and Starbucks have been talking about this for at least three years, because Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, continues to push iTunes as a mainstream music source. It seems like the perfect combination since music is a large part of Starbuck's business. They have been offering CD's for purchase at the register for quite some time now. The article pointed out that Starbucks just sold 24,000 copies of Feist's new CD which includes a cute song called ' 1 2 3 4 ' - and it was a song that was used in one of Apple's iPod commercials recently.

Nothing that I have heard so far seems to indicate this program will be rolled out nationwide - but if any of you hear any differently - please post a comment to let us know!