I just happened upon this little gem on the Redeye Distribution website:

"During the month of September, 6 songs from Over the Rhine's "The Trumpet Child" will receive in-store play at over 6,000 Starbucks location from coast-to-coast."

http://www.redeyeusa.com/artist/11592/news/4574/

Wow... great news. Thanks for sharing that info!

Nice to know that OtR will be heard every two blocks in most major cities!

oh, from the thread title, i thought this was about K&L's well known habit of being "at starbucks." from what i understand they are like a living, breathing GPS system for locating starbucks stores.

but seriously, starbucks has recently begun to make a serious impact and become an influential player in music (i'm not sure if this is good or bad, but it "is") and this should bring some great exposure to them and to the record.

It's bad for music since they sell only about a dozen titles at one time, usually the most generic, non-offensive stuff they can come up with (McCartney's new one, that silly Ray Charles 'I'm dead but still doing duets' album, "Sarah McLachlan sings Christmas songs as a stopgap since she hasn't had 6 years to write her own album yet")...

It's great exposure for anyone who can get in there, no doubt, but I don't think it's good for the business as a whole, simply because it's one company having a HUGE amount of control in filtering the whole of music down to a small number of safe, inoffensive choices. Kind of like a retail version of what Clear Channel did to radio.


And again...it comes down to pricing...no one goes into Starbucks explicitly to buy music. It has to be an impulse buy, and thus be priced as such. If Starbucks really wanted to revolutionize music sales amidst the last gasp of the CD, they'd have a deal with the artists/labels to sell their wares at a cheap price. Anyone who has $5 to spend on a damn coffee has a decent chance of blowing 7 or 8 bucks on impulse for whatever musical selection they're plugging at the moment (especially since that price would be well below traditional retailers). But...that's just me...

Okay............... But is it all right with you if they play Over the Rhine on their stereo for all the nice people who want coffee?

Yeah. I was just talking about the selling of music by Starbucks.

I'd NEVER encourage anyone to turn down that deal, it's great exposure. It's just my personal opinion that it's bad for music as a whole, even if it's good for the dozen or so artists who's CD's are being sold there and played in store.

So...bad for music, but good for OTR, I suppose.

apparently not. they don't bring it in the stores just for decoration, floor/shelf space is a valuable commodity for a retailer, especially in their size stores. most companies of that size carefully evaluate "sales per square foot" and if something isn't pulling it's weight, it goes away. fast. and they are expanding music's footprint, not shrinking it. i don't think they have any interest in "revolutionizing" music, i think they just simply recognize that their demographic fits nicely with certain genres of music and that if they can convert even a small amount of their customers, based on their enormous traffic counts, that there is tons of product that can be moved profitably.

you are totally wrong about the pricing too (imho), if you can afford $5 for a cup of coffee, you are far more likely not to resist paying full pop for a cd, rather than look for a bargain. much of life for their customers, which obviously have expendable income but may not have as much expendable time, is about convenience. in fact, i'll bet in most cases they would be willing to pay a buck or two more in order not to make another stop to pick up a cd (or any other item they like).

but i know...the music business sucks...business sucks...everything sucks

Starbucks totally over roasts their music.

oh come now, lets not get overly maudlin about it.

Anyplace that puts even a tiny scrap of thought into the music they pump into their space... trying to make their customers happy... are going to get creamed with questions about 'who is this playing now?' when they do it right. (Starbucks, Victoria Secrets... whatever...) If I owned a chain, I would do the exact same thing - and I dont see the slightest problem with it. Its better than hearing castrated Mary-Wannablow MUZAK pumped at you. (or is that Barry Manilow?)

Kee-ripes.. its not about accelerating the demise of the CD. (the sky is falling... the sky is falling...)

So - Steve - what would you play in the background if you owned a little bistro? ....and would you let your customers buy the music you had selected for them - if you could?

This is nothing but good. You may say Im missing your point... but my friend - I would say you are missing mine.

Um.... Starbucks can play MY music anytime anywhere they want.....

Just sayin'.

If that is true, then why are CD sales tanking? I'm no economist, but it seems to me the market dictates the cost of things, not the companies. And sales seem to show that the physical CD does not have the value it once did in the eyes of the consumer...any other industry would have been finding ways to adjust for this years ago...

Mathematically, yes...anyone who can afford $5 Starbucks drinks every day should be able to afford a $15 CD, but...it's not about the price, it's about the value, and moreso, the idea in the consumer's mind that they are getting a value. While people still have CD players, you're going to sell a certain number of discs at the Borders-ish (over)price, but IMO you'd sell twice as many at a drastically reduced price, and make more money in the end, since music, and profiting from music should be more about exposure and numbers of listeners than raw sales. Just ask a jam band.


But, I'll do this for Bill:

Ignore what I just said. The business is great! Everything the labels do is great for the artists, for the fans, and promotes the development of long musical careers over one-album pop stars! The labels totally see that they can make more money off slowly developing long-term fanbases by credible artists instead of spending millions in payola so that everyone will hear the new Fergie single. And of course, in promoting their new artist and fan-friendly digital distribution systems that eliminate almost all the costs associated with manufacturing and retail distribution, they've made sure to pass those savings along to the customer by removing those costs from the online prices, while simultaneously giving incredibly generous percentages to the artists.

Better?

Is it just me, or is nearly every thread about the band and the new CD turning into a "thing"?



Just wondering...

Oh, and to answer spr's question, I would totally play OTR in my little cafe if I ever owned one.

This is great for OTR...just as a music fan in general and not as an OTR fan, it's just a rather homogenized way of promoting music, that's all.

It's just like having 8 Spiderman or Rush Hour sequels is good for the movie business, but not necessarily good for the art of film in general, ya know? We're definitely at a point in time where the business side and the artistic side are moving in completely opposite directions, and not just in music. New digital technology in the end is going to be a godsend for fans and artists, but the process of getting there is taking longer than I had hoped.

once again...nevermind, it's like talking to a wall. again and again. and again.

maybe it's the heat...i know i'm one testy mother****er lately (in case you couldn't tell).

Gee Bill, if I knew someone who was qualified, I'd send them over to give you a nice massage...

You keep saying that...but have yet to post any ideas that remotely suggest any kind of solution. I would think being involved in a similar entertainment business you'd be full of ideas the music industry could use to save it's own ass besides "keep doing the same thing until our companies go bankrupt." Knowing your political leanings, you of all people should know the dangers in stubbornly "staying the course."

And I'm out.

Perfect, Dan. That's awesome.

Best thing you posted in this topic.

Steve, I don't know how to say this without being blunt - but I just don't think you understand business and economics. You keep presenting this dichotomy of either a] "sticking it to the man" or b] totally in favor of capitalism. You've had this anti-music industry rant going for some time, and I have yet to figure what you're saying on either side of the table.

Let me just offer you some insight as to why Starbucks is one of the most successful companies on this planet. Starbucks didn't follow conventional wisdom of the food industry. Starbucks cares far less about the product than they do about the experience. The product is part of the deal, but they are ultimately always looking at ways to keep people coming in their doors. If people walk out without a purchase, the company really notices. Nothing in their cafes is placed there by accident. It's part of one of the must genius marketing schemes out there. And it works. I can tell you when I stop by a cafe, people of all ages and races are there. There is literally something for everyone.

As far as the music goes, Starbucks has created its own radio station. Very rarely will you hear a CD played in the stores. I do recall hearing two songs off Ohio back in 2004, which was cool. And I cannot tell you how many times I see someone walk up to the counter and ask, "who is this playing?" Sometimes that results in a CD sale. So what? Did the consumer really get ripped off? Let's see - as a customer I could pay 15 bucks for a CD in the cafe, or save a few bucks off the CD which will pay for the extra gas I burn to the CD shop. For the average consumer, saving a buck here and there is pretty meaningless these days.

Back to the topic introduced - I say let them play some OtR!

seriously steve, no offense but it is like talking to a wall on this subject, there is no point in trying. i wish i had just ignored it. you just don't get it, and apparently never will. and i'll leave it at...

i think john sums it up pretty well...

I'll look forward to have my coffee with some Karin on the side.

She is pretty white...

I say let them play all the OTR they want as well. Never said otherwise. No such thing as bad exposure in the musical sense, especially these days.


It's the job of an economist to say "your business has two, maybe three Christmas seasons left before your primary product is almost entirely phased out of most major retailers, and the whole 99 cents a song thing isn't really going to take off to replace that income, so maybe you should come up with some new ideas, eh?" (my hypothetical economist must be Canadian)


I dunno...check back in another year or two in one of these threads and see how well the 1980's and 90's music business model is working in 2008 or 2009. You can't sell something a large portion of your intended audience has little use for. Really, you don't have to be an economist to see the future there.

so...starbucks is playing 6 songs from "the trumpet child?"

Carry on...

I went to Circuit City last week looking for a special edition of a new release... I could barely find the CD racks, period. Seriously, it was down to two very small rows (from 12-16 rows in the recent past). Best Buy has shrunk theirs, especially in their new "open space" stores, but this Circuit City reduction was sick.

I guess it'll be Lala/Amazon & the Downtown Music Gallery for me in the future. Most of the music I actually buy (vs. just Lala'ing) is from DMG anyway... and those (jazz, avant-garde & experimental) artists tend to like to put out actual product (CDs or vinyl) instead of the download-only option (except for Dave Douglas who issued 12 live sets from a 6-day run at NYC's Jazz Standard last December). Anyway, with arty venues in the Bowery closing (like Tonic), I hope DMG can stay in business with real estate costs going through the roof in Manhattan... oy.

Anyway, as much as I hate to see the CD severely going away in mainstream retail, I think it's really gonna happen in a few short years (outside of online and specialty stores). Sick, sick, sick. I love my iPod, but I also like the shiny plastic discs...

~fff

hey, this is great!!

... nothin' but great. btw.

Any exposure is good exposure as far as I'm concerned!

....and I know the first time I hear Over the Rhine when I'm getting my drug fix (latte with raspberry syrup if you must know) at Starbucks I will probably make a girl-like squeal or somesuch.

Jeff

Hmmm... me thinks I should visit Starbucks more often!

Any place that plays OtR can count me being a customer.

Roast on Starbucks, roast on!

CD sales are tanking because back in the day, music was a valuable part of the entertainment dollar. Now we are inundated with other things to do: more games, more DVDs, cable channels, internet, running kids to soccer games, etc.

The amount of time spent listening to music for the average consumer has drastically dropped off in the past 15 years. Why the music industry can't see that is beyond me. It's not file sharing, that's just an easy scapegoat.

...or in Seattle's case - two stores on every block.

looks like starbucks is providing them some nice exposure via i-tunes...

banner ad on i-tunes "starbucks entertainment" store


an ad promoting i-tunes new wi-fi "starbucks coffeehouse" store








queing...rant from steve in five...four...three...two...

filthy. rich.

The previous above webpage finds itself on the Starbucks itunes page.

Note the upper left corner of the laptop screen on this Starbucks page:

http://www.hearmusic.com/#STARBUCKS_|_iTUNES


Even more promotion.

BTW...I heard OtR "Im on a Roll" at the Starbucks right in the middle of Arizona State University's Memorial Union....during the morning rush.......hundreds of listeners.....wtg K&L!!!!!!

I'll have a cafe mocha - skim no whip please,
David