Carly Simon Signs With Starbucks’ Record Label
Starbucks are mopping up a huge number of geriatric songwriters for their Hear Music label. Carly Simon is the latest in a line of formerly great artists to have signed up with the Starbucks record label in order to get their music force fed to the mocha swigging masses.
In addition to the much loved Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor are known to have released music under the new label. I won’t lay the boot into these acts, but I find it interesting that Hear Music is signing up older artists by the wheelchair load.
No, seriously. I’m a big fan on Joni Mitchell’s work and some of her more recent retrospectives have been as good if not better than the earlier material.
And despite my loathing for Macca, I believe that these older artists still have much to give. I just wonder what’s in it for them. Can Hear Music distribute the music to a wide audience? Roughly 50% of their sales are done in Starbucks stores. Do they have a good marketing/distribution chain or are they relying on point of purchase sales combined with sales to long-term fans?
Does the exposure in one of the largest coffee chains in the world result in new, passionate fans or does it diminish your music into background ‘ambiance’ for dinner parties? I don’t know. Answers on a postcard please, because I’m cynical about what Starbucks’ Hear Music means for artists. Is this the label you sign to when you’ve given up?
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It’s an opportunity for artists to really stand out. In a record store, there are thousands of CDs. How would you notice Carly Simon in that lot? In Starbucks, there’s a small rack and people are bound to notice who’s on it. People who know they want the album will seek it out at Starbucks and others will see it and hear it there, and buy it on impulse.
It works because Starbucks has a small range of stock and a massive distribution chain to expose it. Starbucks also has a captive audience who can be played music.
I suspect artists are able to negotiate better deals with Starbucks at this stage in their development too.
It’s interesting to see how a coffee shop can threaten the established music industry.