Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




A Vente Latte And A Nouveau Dylan, Please!

from the this-is-the-new-retail? dept

theodp writes "Wanna buy counterculture legend Bob Dylan's new CD? For the next 18 months, you'll only be able to do so at Starbucks." We wrote in the past about Starbucks' success in selling a Ray Charles' CD, so this is just an expansion on that concept, combined with Dylan's weird/goofy experiment in doing a Victoria's Secret commercial and offering an exclusive album via their stores for a period of time. However, it seems odd and a bit pointless -- especially in this day and age -- for any musician to agree to have an album only be available in one store. Allowing albums to be sold in these stores makes sense, but the exclusivity seems strange. It also means (most likely) that such songs are not going to be available at any of the legitimate download stores -- meaning people will have more incentive to go looking to download unauthorized copies.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jun 29th, 2005 @ 7:50am
  • No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward

    Bob Dylan & Starbuck ... two things I can certainly do without.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 29th, 2005 @ 10:54am
    • Re: No Subject Given

      by Anonymous Coward

      Last 3 albums I've bought have been at Starbucks. Convenience play for higher bitrate than itunes.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Jun 29th, 2005 @ 8:44am
  • No Subject Given

    "However, it seems odd and a bit pointless -- especially in this day and age -- for any musician to agree to have an album only be available in one store."

    What's that? I can't hear you over the sounds of all that money being dumped out of the Starbuck's truck into Dylan's lap.

    Dylan hates bootlegs. I'm sure this was great; get a ton of money for something he doesn't care for.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 29th, 2005 @ 12:27pm
  • Can lead to boycotts

    It also angers your other retailers. In Canada music stores such as HMV are threatening to remove all music by Alanis Morissette from their shelves if her label signs a deal with Starbucks for it to have exclusive rights to her next album.
    A similar thing happened when the Rolling Stones signed a deal with the FutureShop electronics chain.
    Starbucks must be paying the label enough to make up for these loses.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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