When Paul McCartney became the first artist to sign to Starbucks’ Hear Music record label this year, it felt like something historic might be happening. A Beatle, one of the most legendary musicians of all time, was ditching the music-biz establishment for an imprint run by a bunch of coffee shops. Was it a sign of the impending apocalypse? A bold step toward the future of entertainment (and caffeination)? Well, Hear Music announced today that its second artist will be Joni Mitchell — and now that they’ve established a pattern of snatching up aging boomer greats, somehow the whole phenomenon seems far more mundane than it once did.
That’s not a knock against Mitchell by any means. Her talent is beyond question, and I’m glad she’s coming out of retirement, no matter who or what convinced her. Seeing as I was one of the many who thought that Macca’s frappuccalbum was actually pretty amazing, I’m not worried about Mitchell’s art getting contaminated by the corrosive commercial influence of Starbucks, Inc. But neither will I be surprised if all that ‘Bucks-provided buzz adds up to just slightly-better-than-average sales. McCartney’s album, after all, has yet to go gold; for all the talk about shaking up the industry, it sort of turned out to be a non-event on that front. Truth is, Starbucks isn’t doing anything so revolutionary. They’re a lot like anyanother mainstream label: Seeking out the safest bets possible and marketing the living daylights out of ‘em. In the end, your listening experience won’t be affected in any way by the tiny Hear Music logo on Joni’s next CD — much less the small-print "Hear Music" tag on its iTunes Store page. And that, as the baristas say, is The Way I See It.
But, hey, do any of you See It differently? Does this news make you want to hail a "Big Yellow Taxi" out of this corporate world?
Comments (1-10) of 10 Add your comment
I want my coffee strong
I want it short, not long
I want to belong
to my laaattteee
Records companies are evil scumbags. I’m all for anything which hastens their demise.
I’m interested in the idea. As far as shaking up the industry, what will really shake it up will be when someone invents a new way of presenting the music which is DOWNLOAD PROOF! That’s the only way the industry will be saved; someone has to figure out a way to sell music that can’t be downloaded. I can’t say how it will be done, though I imagine the old record store that I grew up with is toast. But that is what needs to be done.
After years of battling the cigar-chomping, cut throat big wigs of the record industry I’m sure that artists like Paul and Joni look at Starbucks as a paper tiger in comparison. More power to them.
I love Joni Mitchell’s older music, but she wrecked her voice with smoking and is unpleasant to listen to now. Having the record in Starbucks won’t change that.
I agree with Joe C that the record store is endangered, but it’s the fault of consumers who would rather download individual tracks or buy CDs at Wal-Mart rather than seek out good record stores. The crappy FYE-type stores share some of the blame, as well as record companies who now routinely release albums with two singles and 10 filler songs.
Starbucks may actually be a cure for that phenomenon–strange as it may seem, they actually seem to want to put out quality music. (See the Artist’s Choice compilations they’ve been putting out for a while.)
So maybe they’ll actually be GOOD for the state of music today.
You make an interesting point, Gingercat. I am guilty of what you’re talking about; I usually buy my music at Borders rather than seeking out a TRUE record store. Just gotten lazy, I guess!
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