Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Are we required to play Christmas songs? (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by HoneydewOk5894
My store has been playing Christmas music everyday since November started. Usually on my shift I’ll ask other baristas if they mind if I change the playlist and what playlist they would prefer. However, last shift my supervisor told me I wasn’t allowed to turn off the Christmas music anymore. However, most of the playlist is fairly religious Christmas music. Think Hallelujah and Silent Night rather than All I want for Christmas is You or Last Christmas. I’m not Christian (grew up in an Islamic and atheistic mixed household) and feel uncomfortable with Christian based songs. (Nothing against y’all person shit lol). Is there anyway for me to get around this? I know Starbucks publicly made the switch from ‘Christmas’ to ‘Holidays’ a few years ago to be more inclusive. But only playing Christmas songs in store doesn’t feel really inclusive. Especially when I’m told I’m not allowed to change it to the store playlist.
rtsneedshelp 14 points 7m ago
sbux is incredibly hypocritical with the whole holiday situation. no “christmas” mention and we aren’t technically allowed to decorate on our own, but there’s xmas tree displays that were sent to us and christmas music. It’s very annoying and makes me roll my eyes big time.
I do not think there’s a rule saying you can’t change the music, we change ours and other stores i have been in have other sbux playlists going. This seems like an issue with your manager specifically.
I do not think there’s a rule saying you can’t change the music, we change ours and other stores i have been in have other sbux playlists going. This seems like an issue with your manager specifically.
OneRoseDark 8 points 7m ago
That is not a starbucks policy; that is a rule your supervisor has.
Which means you can 100% just ignore it. Or take it to your manager. I'd take it to the manager.
Which means you can 100% just ignore it. Or take it to your manager. I'd take it to the manager.
Brgnbo 5 points 7m ago
Every time I hear the Christmas music I change the playlist lmao it’s so weird Starbucks allows the religious music? I don’t mind the regular holiday happy music but the Jesus songs?
HoneydewOk5894 [OP] 2 points 7m ago
Literally. I’m about to start playing Islamic songs. Let’s see how long it takes for someone to get upset.
gaybat13 0 points 7m ago
hallelujah is a jewish song lol
HoneydewOk5894 [OP] 1 points 7m ago
My bad. Didn’t realize that still negates the point that they’re playing religious songs and forcing us to listen to them and not allow us to change the playlist.
prec1028 -2 points 7m ago
I’d say buy an aux cord adapter and hook it up to the system to play your own playlists! I’ve made a couple different playlists on Spotify-including a Christmas one for the sole reason of playing it over the store speakers. To hook it up, remove the left cord from the curio player z8 (it’s a small thin black box, usually on top of where you change the volume and turn on/off the music), plug the aux adapter onto the cord you removed, plug in your phone, and play your music. I would also say if the shift leads and store manager still give you push back, say the forcing you to listen to Christian Christmas music makes you uncomfortable due to religious reasons.
facherry 7 points 7m ago
connecting your own playlist to the store isn’t really brand standard, so i wouldn’t really recommend doing it unless you have an SM that doesn’t care or one that’s heavily absent. starbucks curates their own playlists for a reason
prec1028 0 points 7m ago
I would say that it does depend on the store and I would ask the store manager if they were ok with it. But pretty much every store I’ve worked at doesn’t care, as long as it’s store appropriate. But I mean on the store playlist there’s Changes by Tupac and it’s “bleeping” isn’t very good. So I don’t think a instrumental cover of Christmas music is going against the store or branding standard. Also, stores can also host live music and while it has to be store appropriate and they have to attain rights, it doesn’t have to only be songs from the store approved playlists. So while branding is more up in the air…every store is different with their expectations.
Ordinary-Theory-8289 3 points 7m ago
It’s more so about licensing laws. Not being “brand standard”
prec1028 2 points 7m ago
Yes! I realize now that I didn’t mention that my Spotify playlists are made up of songs from the Starbucks playlist (I was getting so confused because I’m like but I am following licensing laws????) I def agree about licensing laws and playing music at Starbucks isn’t worth getting sued for. I usually like to just compile my favorites from the store playlists. Especially with holidays, just the few songs that are instrumental/not Christian are the ones I like to create a playlist for. I have several coworkers that aren’t comfortable listening to some of the songs like the original poster, but some like the holiday spirit. And let’s be honest, not being able to skip that one awful song that seems to be in every playlist on the iPad is awful. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear before!!
clouds183 2 points 7m ago
you can get sued for not having the licenses to play those songs. the songs on the playlists are ones sbux paid for the licenses for and have the rights to play them publicly.
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