Is Starbucks cranking up the music to annoy the wi-fi crowd?

One customer believes Starbucks is using the loud music to shoo-out people who sit with their laptops, use space, and not generate enough dollars/square foot. I've noticed the music is a bit loud, but I like what they've been playing lately -- music from my college days -- so I don't complain. I'm sure Starbucks managers out there will let us know if they've been instructed to adjust the sound level to LOUD. Om Malik's Blog)

Comments

[Rae]

I happen to work at a Starbucks, and while I can't speak for other stores, I do know that we could care less if people sit around and serf the net, I mean, we provide the free internet! As for loud music, just ask if it can be turned down, I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige

a) yes it can be turned down if asked
b)i, as a partner, dont mind people hanging out.
c) the acoustics behind the counter aren't that great at some stores, so sometimes we really can't tell how loud the music is playing. plus the volume knob is really really sensitive. so if we move it like even the tiniest bit, it gets louder/softer than expected

[Avery]

Every time I've been in a Starbucks (usually using my cell) and the music is loud, the counter people turn it down upon request. Wireless users are generating income for the store by way of the T-Moble deal: users pay for Wi-Fi. Maybe it's ME they are after!

[colleen]

that's ludacris. FIRST OF ALL, we have no speakers over on our side of the bar, so when we turn it on in the morning, we can't tell if it's too loud or too soft. (we get asked to turn it up more than down, by the way) I don't see why if we offer an expensive service that (t-mobile charges too much for wi-fi)we would want to kick paying customers out!

[colleen]

wi-fi is not free in Starbucks.

This is probably the most retarded rumour I have ever heard. We have total control over the music volume and generally if it's loud it's because there is a good song playing. However, my co-worker will turn it up extra loud if she wants to chase the stragglers out at the end of the night. I just turn it right off and hope they get the hint.

[tired barista]

I turn the music up loud to make my life just a little bit less horrible.

Oh, you're on you CELL PHONE in a PUBLIC PLACE and can't hear? Too bloody bad jerkface.

OK, for real though, the managers are not instructed to turn the music up. We just can't tell when it is too loud because of the way the speakers are situated. We are glad to turn it down upon request.

[Deeni]

For much of the past year the music has been too loud to have a conversation (in person or on the phone) write or read. And that is what I try to do when I'm in starbucks. It must be responsible for the majority of dissertations and first novels out there. And the music is making it too hard to concentrate or think.

[Christopher]

I have noticed people spending hours on end in there and likely spending no more than $3. I'm sure that doesn't thrill Starbucks.

[deusx]

Yes it's all true. It is merely the next phase in our plan for world domination. Now that we have you addicted to our high sugar, high fat caffeinated drinks, we will dumb down America by preventing anything worthwhile to be written. BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!

Please. Who comes up with this shit? It sounds like a writer with a block externalizing his writing issues. But at least its creative.

[Scully]

That's just ridiculous. Starbucks WANTS to be the place people hang out with their laptops, books, whatevah.

[Boston Starbucks Rebeel]

I turn the music up and down depending on the volume of customers in the store. It is important that they are able to hear the music so they can learn about great artists. We have basically two different settings, one is for the morning and evening when there aren't that many people. The rush hours do get turned up alot so people can hear the music and how you can hear on Hear Music Channel 75 XM Satellite Radio! Besides lots of people love the Dave Matthews and Cold Play CD!

[Redneck Shift Supervisor]

At our store, we keep the volume knob at about 5.5 and no one has complained in over 2 years. Also, when we get a new disc in, we play it in sequence for the first week, and then play it in random mode for the next three weeks. We sometimes put in an older disc in the evening (especially if we have older CDs we need to push). However, I absolutely refuse to voluntarily play Antigone Rising ever again. What a nightmare. Last thought - wouldn't it be nice if our POS screens showed what song was playing so we could give that info to customers who asked?

[anonymous jones]

Hi! Do Starbucks serve tea?

[barista who can spit in your drinks]

Turning up the music to get rid of people? PLEASE. Thats such bullshit. Ok, like it has been said already, No, we cant always hear that well behind the bar. Also, we've only had a couple of people complain about it being too loud, and we've always been MORE than happy to adjust it for them. I mean, we had two old people come in the other day complaining that it was too cold, the music was too loud, chairs were in the wrong place, blah blah blah. And of course we did everything possible to make them happy! Even though the bastards didnt even tip us.
Hey, to Boston Starbucks Rebel: GOD, THANK YOU!!! I HATE ANTIGONE RISING TOO! lol

[LeftyGrrrl]

We do adjust volume based on customer preference.

But here's something to think about:

You spend $5 at Starbucks and want to hang out there for hours, complaining about everything from lighting and other customers to temperature and the volume of our music. We attempt to accomodate you in any way that we can.

You shop at the Gap or Old Navy or wherever. You spend anywhere from $20 to over $200. You spend anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour in there. And not one person complains about the music or the temperature or the lighting or the other customers. Not one person.

I know that the experiences are based largely on how much time one spends in one place, or, what type of time one is spending. But still. The demands and expectations of customers at Starbucks exist solely because Starbucks is accomodating. Do people complain about this stuff at Borders cafes, where people spend hours and hours studying and such? I think not.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Well I in fact like Antigone Rising because they are on the same CD as Dave Matthews and Cold Play. But I do have to admit that here in Boston there is the story of a certain store using music to drive out crazy customers. They used to blast Aretha Franklin and Alanis Morrisette to get rid of the crazies. Its really funny! Also, playing classical music works very very well in get rid of the homeless poeple who hang around too much. Although at the present time there is no good classical music CD for in-store play except if you have the new "music box" but then there would be life without Cold Play or Dave. That is just no acceptable!

[QC Latte]

Boston, you have "CD"s? That might be OK. Ours is this hard drive based monstrosity that now has a pushed "A list" that means some albums get played over and over and over...

In 7 hours today I heard one or another Version of MAs Que NAda 20 times. No kidding! Twice for each Sergio Mendes set, and 4 or five on the various supporting playlists.

The only way out is to find another playlist. But even then! When that one ends, it starts the whole A list over from the top.

If we are trying to tick off anyone, I'd have to say it's the baristas who hear the same promo lists over and over just so that the constantly changing customer base has a chance to hear music (sorry!) that we are currently pushing.

Yeah, that's it! It's all to get to the baristas. Not the cell phone users, or the computer folks, or (in our case) the doctorate students studying for finals at the Chiropractic College down the road.

...and it's always more effective to turn the music off at the end of the night. At least it was when I was a bartender ;-)

I think it totally depends on the type of clients you have in your store if you notice someones trying to have a business meeting in your cafe turn it down a bit(this happens often in my store)but if you have a buch of highschool kids or families i think the music being a little louder is totally cool!! Redneck Shift supervisor I totally agree with your POS idea why don't you write up a mission review?

[LeftyGrrrl]

My store has a tape player. I think we may be the only store left.

[k]

I'm so excited to know what people are going to think of next. The hits just keep on coming.

[xcat]

we have a few partners, who when they open, turn the music up super loud... i hate it! maybe i'm just a weenie, but i always turn the music down, regardless of what time of day it is...

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

In New England North, the last store to my knowledge that still uses tapes is Government Center aka. The Steaming Kettle. Also, the hard drive music box is alot easier to manipulate because you can simply plug in your iPod or CD Player and bypass the required music. Also using the old CD's and recording your own promos completely fools your manager into thinking that they are listening to the hard drive. Just put your iPod or CD player under a hat.

[LicensedStoreManager]

My store really enjoyed the Ray Charles CD. As a licensed store, we are ineligible to sell most CD's (and the ones we can sell, we never get the in store CD for, dumb move on someone's part). Does anyone know how to take an expired CD and get it to play in the in store system? I can experiment if anyone has had anything that's worked? We have lots of requests for the Ray Charles CD and kept it in the off chance it might work some day. Thanks for any help you can give!

[Baristababe5371]

Here's a thought....

For the past three years that I have worked at Starbucks, there has never been any music that I actually WANT to hear myself.

Recently, we'd have some pretty good selections to choose from - which I would say contributes to higher volume.

We'd never have a problem turning anything down, and as a store manager, I can vouch that I have definitely not had any formal communication regarding volume in the stores...

If anything, they say to turn it down!

Oh, and by the way... if the music it too loud for your precious cell phone usage... HANG IT UP!

[BaristaIND]

our customers pay for their internet due to the hot spot t mobile agreement. or whatever it is... we have students/professors/business people all come in and if they ask, we turn it down. i agree with everyone about the speaker placement, sometimes you can't hear it in the barista area. i like to turn up the music some days when i open because i find it wakes me up if i'm dragging ass. but between 6-8 am we know that our regular professor will come in and nicely demand that we either turn off the music or switch it to classical... and i like the mas que nada cd and its much better than listening to the acoustic alanis cd which one partner plays on repeat every single time he works. it drives us crazy. it just gets really boring listening to classical/jazz all day long .. puts me right to sleep.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

We just say that the music has been chosen by Hear Music in Seattle. If somebody has a request they can submit a comment card to Seattle and then Seattle can get back to us. I must say the Mary J. Blige CD is really good. Her CD's sold out really quickly along with the Etta James CD. But Dave and Alanis will always have a special place in my Starbucks heart.

[Barista to the Stars]

The day that the Alanis CD expired, she met with an unfortunate, yet much deserved fate. Never again will I have to listen to that drowning cat at 4:45 AM........

The music lately, generally speaking, has been crap. I blame the Hear Music thing. I suspect they are only playing music they can sell. So the good stuff is gone.

Generally, the CD goes like this: crap-crap-crap-Proud Mary by young Tina Turner-crap-crap-crap.

Bleh. Bring back the music!!!!!!

Barista to the Stars

[Manny]

Hard drives? CDs? My understanding is that Starbucks music is vie satelitte radio! Am I wrong or Im just dreaming?
Manny

[QC Latte]

Manny:

You were dreaming and wrong ;-)

Some stores are using CD based system as mentioned by Boston, and some, like our newer market are all hard drive based units labeled "Play" on the front. For these, an update cd arrives every month that does several things: updates the playlists, adds some new music, and sets expiration dates for the playlists it brings.

There is not satellite dish, thus no satellite reception. A simple scroll through the menu confirms this. If it were being drawn from the birds, there would be some sort of "aiming" utility, which there isn't.

...maybe you came to this because of the Hear Music promos? The ones that say "available exclusively on XM Satellite Radio"?

[RED]

ANTIGONE RISING IS THE WORST THING STARBUCKS HAS EVER SOLD!!!!!!!!

[DoubleTall]

The Summer UK frap CD is pretty lively , its well worth putting it on and turning it up if you get a quiet period instore, it dies after about 1.5 hours in and gets boring but theres some wicked tunes on it.

Our xmas CD met a horrible death by door disfigurement

[QC Latte]

LOL! That's funny, Doubletall. Our Holiday CD update disc also met an untimely demise. The team put in votes, and it was decided that it should be glued to a large model rocket engine and put into orbit.

The first choice was actually to use firecrackers of some sort, but those are not legal here, and we wouldn't want to break the law, now would we?

So...model rocket engine in the field at the local school it was. Quite spectacular, really.

[ErosLane]

The volume in the Starbucks I frequent in The Maul is often deafening.

But I wouldn't mind it as much if they were playing Maximo Park. Or Hilary Duff.

I'd linger for hours then, singing along (poorly & out of tune) --- wi-fi or not.

At least it's not the usual coffee shop/Birkenstock muzak.

But then, no one asked me. :P~

How do I connect iPod to the hard disk player?

My store generally has volume knob set at 25%. For some albums this is blasting. Whenever a customer requests we turn the music down we gladly do it. The acoustics of the lobby echos so when it is loud it is like house party.

It will be a sad day when Coldplay "X&Y" is deleted. We missed Sarah McLachlan Support & Sheryl Crow support when they were gone. I miss the day of "CD" when you can choose to play favorite albums. Ah I remmeber the tape players. The tapes did not play in regular tape players.

Antigone Rising - our ASM can say "HELLO" like how it is sung. Whenever "Michael" used to come on one of my baristas would weep uncontrollably.

My store generally plays "Coldplay - X&Y" non-stop. When it ends a partner runs to the back to replay it. It plays over & over. But it is what my partners like and what keeps them happy.

We also do play "Verve Remix 1-3", "Reggae", "Patio Backyard Mix", and "R&B". These are about the only albums we play.

Nit. now if iPod can be connected - "The Killers", "Green Day", "The Smiths", "The Cure", "The Bravery", "Franz Ferdinand", "Coldplay" earlier albums will be added. Well I know we are only supposed to be playing licensed music.

The Hear Music station plays "Green Day" and "Depeche Mode" wish we had these in store. I remember when "The Cure". "The Smiths". "R.E.M". "The Clash", "Pretenders", "U2", "Coldplay" was part of contemporary grinds. Whatever happened to the cool music?

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

OK. This is the way my shift supervisor used to do it. If you notice, there is a "booster" or something that is hooked up directly to the hard drive player itself. And the speakers are hooked up to the signal booster. Therefore, unplug the booster thing from the hard drive and plug it into your iPod. That should work.

Thanks Boston Starbucks Rebel!!!!

At my store the hard disc player is hard wired into the booster box. However, there is "AUX IN" so I plugged my iPod into the "AUX IN" my iPod was playing over the speakers in store. It was awesome.

My partners were happily working today. Customers even commented on the better music choice.

So, playing own music is no longer an "Urban Legend".

Awaiting the day when stores get XM Radio. I am sure the AUX IN on the booster box is probably meant for this.

T-Mobile is running a free weekends of WI-FI in March promo.

[Tom]

I agree with the Boston Baristas, its the repetition thats the issue, even if your not in there 7 hours a day. As a customer, in the morning and at lunch, I can't believe how many times I hear the same song. It seems as if not only do they play the same selections, but they play them at the same time. Like when the Dylan soundtrack came out I was like "this is really good, I should buy it." Then I heard so much I got sick of it.

All that said: I thought they play the music a little on the loud side because they were pushing the XM satellite radio thing. I also thought it would be sort of interesting for them to do Podcasts from customers mp3 players while they were in the store. I know it will never happen, and I'm not suggesting that it should happen. I just think it would be interesting.

Lastly, I gotta say that I am totally impressed with all the employees at the stores in Boston. I feel like going to Starbucks is like a vacation. I guesse I'm just easy. : )

[Holly]

WI-FI :
Panara is going free and there are alot of other coffee shops going with Free Wi FI / What is wrong with Starbucks? $6.00 a drink not good enough\? I love starbucks coffie but now that there is a central Perk with free wifi down the road, I will be there

[shiftysupp]

how about hooking up an ipod to the cd players? I am very curious cause I don't want to have to rip cd's into Mp2 format and go from there...

[Clifford D Smith]

This not about "LOUD MUSIC", This about Support of our Troops, Starbuck you send me an e-mail advertising your product. And now I receive an e-mail from the Troops, saiding your Company does not support the WAR are any one in it, I would like to know your Comments on this matter of where you stand "In and for America" of Support of our Troops. I'm Retired Army(E-7) Vietnam Veterans,w/26yrs Service and(3)Purple Hearts. Please inform me. Thanks. CDS

[STARBUCKS GOSSIP webmaster]

From message above:

Please inform me.

Dear Clifford D. Smith, Why don't you inform yourself by doing a two-second web search and discovering that the e-mail is BOGUS and has been widely debunked. Stop spreading misinformation on my website.

[dismayedbarmaven]

"...I have noticed people spending hours on end in there and likely spending no more than $3. I'm sure that doesn't thrill Starbucks..."

I have to agree here. My store is full of 'parkers', especially in the evenings. We have groups of people that will come in and take up 2 or 3 tables for upwards of 3 hours. In fact, just about weekly I get complaints from people who CANNOT get seating.

Of course, the worst part of it is that only 2 or 3 folks in said table-monopolizing group will buy a drink. The rest of them request cups of water. Which of course wastes stock, but don't get me started, lol...

[flyff penya]

Of course, the worst part of it is that only 2 or 3 folks in said table-monopolizing group will buy a drink. The rest of them request cups of water. Which of course wastes stock, but don't get me started, lol...

[Elizabeth Sharrock]

I work at the Starbucks in Oklahoma City. I can tell you from first hand experience that we are instructed by management to turn the music up as loud as we can bare it in order to get rid of people sitting and surfing the internet. We just want you to come in and pay 4 bucks for a cup of coffee and then get the hell out. Period. Deal with it folks

[Blogzillla]

The music at Starbucks isn't so much loud as it is annoying! I don't want to hear any of it, even if I like the artist

Their acoustics suck a big cheesy foreskinned penis, and are about as good as a high school cafeteria, with sound waves bouncing and echoing off the walls. Everyone's conversation is at high level.

It's no wonder now when I go to Starbucks and get on my computer, I don't spend very much anymore, or I just bring my own coffee to drink which is made with far less sweetener and fats.

From the rudeness of the clerks not wanting to make decaffeinated coffee to their awful music thrust upon their customers to their ever increasing prices