BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinuanet) -- Apple Inc and Starbucks Corp. said on Wednesday they had reached an exclusive partnership that allows people to buy songs wirelessly from Apple's iTunes music store in Starbucks coffee shops without paying WiFi connection fees.

Apple's new wireless iPod music player, iPhone or any laptop computer running iTunes, will automatically recognize the iTunes store without a connection fee when customers enter a Starbucks shop that has Wi-Fi access.

"I can't tell you how many customers have come into our stores over the years and loved a song that they hear and asked our baristas, 'What's that song? I'd love to buy it,'" Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment division said.

"Getting free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and the 'Now Playing' service at Starbucks is a great way for customers to discover new music," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool."

"With this partnership, we're bringing Apple's leadership in digital music together with not only our retail footprint, but the unique Starbucks experience, to offer customers a world-class digital music experience," said Howard Schultz, chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company.

The service will make its debut at more than 600 Starbucks company-operated locations in New York and Seattle on Oct. 2 and will be expanded to other major U.S. cities later this year and next.

The company has no immediate timeline for rolling out the service internationally.

Currently, customers pay to use the Wi-Fi wireless Internet service provided by Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile at Starbucks' U.S. stores.

Seattle-based Starbucks, which already had been selling CDs in its stores, earlier this year launched its own label, Hear Music. It released the latest album by Paul McCartney in June and has also signed artists such as James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.

(Agencies)