STARBUCKS OFFERS NEW MUSIC DOWNLOAD PRODUCTS: DIGIALBUMS AND FREE SONG OF THE DAY CARDS

What's part trading card, part music download card, part marketing genius? The new free Starbucks "Song of the Day" card, which lets you download a single song from iTunes, if you ask your barista at Starbucks for one. Cool idea. (I mentioned trading cards because an image of the artist appears on the front of each card, so they may have some collector value and tradeability one day.)

Starbucks now also provides customers with the 21st century digital equivalent of albums, too -- and they're square, not round, this time around. (They may look square, but they're hip.) This other new marketing thing is a "digital release" which enables the buyer of said square thing to download a whole set of songs; the "digialbums" I saw at Starbucks were by Eddie Vedder and KT Tunstall.

Both of these developments should be watched closely; they could be the future of the music business. (As if you haven't heard that phrase before.) Just remember: Song of the Day - free, for a limited time, every day (just ask); digialbum - ask your barista for cost.