BCE Presents "Starbucks News Watch"

SEATTLE, Dec 08, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Starbucks (Nasdaq:SBUX):

Starbuck's Expands Music Offerings
-- Album Features Hancock with Christina Aguilera, Sting, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Annie Lennox, Damien Rice, Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Others

-- Possibilities is the Second Starbucks Hear Music Co-Release to Be
Grammy(R)Nominated, Following Ray Charles Genius Loves Company in 2004.

Herbie Hancock's Possibilities has received two GRAMMY(R) nominations:

Best Pop

Collaboration with Vocals (for "A Song For You," featuring Christina Aguilera)and Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "Gelo Na Montanha," featuring Trey Anastasio). The nominations culminate months of acclaim for the album, which Hancock Music, Vector Recordings and Starbucks (Nasdaq:SBUX) Hear Music released August 30 to Starbucks Company-operated locations and traditional retail outlets.

Possibilities finds Hancock collaborating with a diverse group of world-renowned artists from well beyond the world of jazz, including: John Mayer, Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan, Sting, Annie Lennox, Joss Stone and Jonny Lang, Paul Simon, Raul Midon, Carlos Santana and Angelique Kidjo, Christina Aguilera and Trey Anastasio. "Artists are usually capable of so much more than they're expected to deliver," said Hancock. "Every track on Possibilities has a surprise in the sense that each artist shows dimensions of their creative abilities that the public is hearing for the first time."

Herbie Hancock has remained seminal and innovative through four decades of music making, having won ten GRAMMY(R) Awards, an Academy Award and countless other accolades. Possibilities has been the most successful debut of his career.

Over 500,000 copies of the album have shipped worldwide since Possibilities was released globally the week of August 29, 2005. It sold more than 42,000 copies in the U.S. alone in its first week on sale and debuted at No. 22 on The Billboard 200 Albums chart. As of December 4, Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. have sold more than 130,000 copies of the album, accounting for 59 percent of all sales in the U.S. Possibilities spent its first 10 weeks of release at No. 1 on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

On December 7, Hancock and Sting performed the Possibilities track "Sister Moon"
on Good Morning America. In October, Christina Aguilera joined Hancock for performances of "A Song for You" on The Tonight Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Possibilities has achieved resounding critical praise from The New York Times, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Billboard and O, The Oprah Magazine, National Public Radio, VH1 News and CNN Headline News' Showbiz Tonight. The album received rave reviews in two consecutive issues of People and both the September and October issues of Esquire.

Esquire described the album as "one that truly shows genius loves company."
Adding, "The surprise isn't that it's bound to earn an armload of GRAMMY(R)s but that the record's cohesive and compelling enough that they'll be well-deserved."
The Philadelphia Inquirer said Hancock "lift(s) each participant to a higher, soulful challenge."

As with the multi-platinum Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company -- which won eight
GRAMMY(R) Awards in February 2004--Starbucks is participating in many facets of the project's lifecycle, from facilitating production to distribution and marketing of the album. The GRAMMY(R) nominations for Possibilities represent the second year in a row in which an album Starbucks Hear Music co-released has received multiple GRAMMY(R) nominations since Starbucks launched its music strategy with the release of Genius Loves Company in 2004. Through a distribution agreement with Warner Music International, Hancock's Possibilities was released globally the week of August 29, at traditional music retail and select Starbucks locations. The release of Possibilities was the first time Starbucks has made a CD available simultaneously at Company-operated locations in the U.S. and select international markets, including Australia, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

About Vector

Led by executives Ken Levitan and Jack Rovner, Vector Recordings has quickly become one of the most formidable organizations in music today, releasing acclaimed albums by artists such as Damien Rice, Queen Latifah and Joseph Arthur. Levitan founded Vector Management in 1986. Vector Recordings was formed in 2002 when he and Rovner -- who had served as President of RCA and previously served stints at Columbia and Arista -- combined their collective experiences, solidifying a label and management partnership. With offices in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, Vector is comprised of individuals with a diversity of music business backgrounds, making for a team that can contribute to all aspects of its artists' careers.

About Starbucks Hear Music

Founded in 1990, and acquired by Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999, Starbucks Hear Music is the voice of music at Starbucks. Starbucks Hear Music is dedicated to creating a new and convenient way for consumers to discover, experience and acquire all genres of great music through its CD compilations and music programming for Starbucks coffeehouses worldwide, as well as its innovative partnerships with other music labels to produce, market and distribute both exclusive and non-exclusive music. In 2004, Starbucks Hear Music launched a 24-hour digital music channel with XM Satellite Radio (XM Channel 75), the Starbucks Hear Music(TM) Coffeehouse in Santa Monica where customers can select from over 15,000 CDs or burn their own custom mixes, and the Starbucks Hear Music(TM) media bars, a service that offers custom CD burning at select Starbucks retail locations in Seattle and Austin. Starbucks Hear Music(TM) CDs are featured at Hear Music and Starbucks retail locations, as well as online at www.starbucks.com/hearmusic.

About Starbucks Coffee Company

Starbucks Corporation is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world, with more than 10,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. The Company is committed to offering the highest quality coffee and the Starbucks Experience while conducting its business in ways that produce social, environmental and economic benefits for communities in which it does business. In addition to its retail operations, the Company produces and sells bottled Frappuccino(R) coffee drinks, Starbucks DoubleShot(R) espresso drink, and a line of superpremium ice creams through its joint venture partnerships. The Company's brand portfolio provides a wide variety of consumer products - innovative superpremium Tazo(R)teas and exceptional compact discs from Starbucks Hear Music(TM) enhance the Starbucks Experience through best-of-class products. The Seattle's Best Coffee(R) and Torrefazione Italia(R) coffee brands enable Starbucks to appeal to a broader consumer base by offering an alternative variety of coffee flavor profiles.

SOURCE: Starbucks Coffee Company