This is indicative of Starbucks’ growing power as an alternative media distribution vehicle, and a very effective one at that. I doubt their Hear Music CD-burning cafes are doing well, but their in-store CD sales have been.

Starbucks plans to promote “Akeelah and the Bee,” an upcoming film starring Laurence Fishburne, in all 5,500 of its U.S. and Canadian company-owned stores. “We have one shot to get this right,” said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, the division handling the new venture.

Starbucks will promote the film on the cardboard sleeves wrapped around its coffee cups, on its Wi-Fi portal page and using its Hear Music Channel 75 on XM Satellite Radio. Beginning April 4, Starbucks will sell the soundtrack to the film, and later, the DVD. The promotion would include exclusive scenes and movie trailers posted on the company’s Wi-Fi portal.

And this is huge: Starbucks will receive an undisclosed percentage of all box office sales, merchandise sales, TV revenues and soundtrack and DVD sales—even from non-Starbucks retail locations.