Posted March 13, 200718 yr Starbucks brews up music label Hear Music a 'natural next step' for the coffee behemoth and music retailer, says corporate guy. Paul McCartney rumoured to be the first artist to sign to label Rosie Swash Tuesday March 13, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Coffee behemoth Starbucks announced today it is to extend its role from coffee shop and part-time music retailer to full-blown record label with the formation of a new company, Hear Music. The company has for the past few years been selling music in its stores by artists such as Ray Charles and Brazilian Sergio Mendes, while also signing distribution deals for previously unreleased Bob Dylan tracks and music by Canadian artist Alanis Morrisette. Announcing the formation of Hear Music, the president of Starbucks Entertainment Ken Lombard said, "This announcement is a natural next step in our entertainment strategy. Hear Music will add tremendous value to the content offerings and distribution of great music Starbucks customers have come to expect." Starbucks purchased the Hear Music brand name in 1999, when the label was a catalogue company; it evolved into a radio channel and began in-store CD sales and sales through iTunes and is now a complete record label that will manage new artists. Reports spread by Fox News, as yet unconfirmed, suggest Paul McCartney may be one of the first acts to sign to the label. The chain's development into a giant of the music retail industry has been a controversial one. Dylan caused outrage when he signed a deal to sell material from his 1962 album Live at the Gaslight exclusively through Starbucks. The coffee franchise is a symbol of American capitalism for the anti-globalisation movement and the move did not sit easily with many fans of the notoriously anti-establishment Dylan. Starbucks currently has 13,000 stores worldwide and nearly 45m customers a week globally, making it one of the top forty music retailers on the planet.
March 13, 200718 yr Aww I love Starbucks. ^_^ Sounds interesting, don't see why they should bother though. :lol:
March 14, 200718 yr Their Caramel Hot Chocolate rocks. It'd depend on the music though ... generally "coffee-house-music" is right up my street ... relaxed, unfussy, and easy to listen to ... I'm not going to write anything off until I've heard it.
March 14, 200718 yr "Coffee behemoth" :lol: Talk about stretching a brand . . . next stop trains, planes and broadband packages . . . "the 8.15 Starbucks Express to London Euston" :lol: . . . and at nearly 3 quid for a cup of coffee will they be retailing Alanis's next CD for £29.99? :wub: Grande Caramel Macchiatio with cream though . . . love Starbucks for the intense caffeine and sugar hit . . . it's an-upper-in-a-mug!
March 14, 200718 yr It'd depend on the music though ... generally "coffee-house-music" is right up my street ... relaxed, unfussy, and easy to listen to ... You missed out "bland, cliched, totally uninspiring and the musical equivalent of wallpaper" as well.. I cannot stand "coffee house music" (or at least, what passes for it these days..), it's just there, as an afterthought, part of the furniture, just one step up from the crappy Muzak that gets played in lifts, supermarkets and while you're put on hold... Call me fussy, but I want a little bit more than that out of music... And their coffee fukkin' sucks as well.... Starbucks and its totally sanitised ilk has ruined the great 'Cafe Culture' that we once had in Europe....
March 15, 200718 yr You missed out "bland, cliched, totally uninspiring and the musical equivalent of wallpaper" ... in your opinion
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