Do You Want a Latte With Your CD?

After the blog I wrote yesterday I wrote on inspirations for what I write, I found it amusing but somewhat appropriate that I follow up with what my brother calls my 'go-to' topic, Starbucks. It seems that the coffee house is now officially launching it's own record label Hear Music. One of the first major stars to sign onto the label is none other than former-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. The announcement came earlier this week that the coffee giant was getting into the music business full time. This isn't the first time that the company has been involved in music. On a much smaller scale, the company has helped produce some smaller albums that were available at certain times of year, most often during major holidays. The signing of Paul McCartney heralds something new.

Some people would argue that a company like Starbucks is setting itself up for problems based on the fact that they are a coffee company and not a record company. And while that is a true statement, it doesn't necessarily translate into fact. Have any doubts? Then look at Virgin. Virgin began as a record label led by maverick Richard Branson who then went on to found a number of companies under the Virgin label. Not all of these endeavours took off but they certainly helped Branson and the company make an inroads to the rest of the world. Virgin Atlantic airlines was one of the first to finally break the stranglehold on British air service that had been long held by traditional carriers but most notably by British Airways. What they offered was the perception of greater service and higher quality for the same price.

In the case of Starbucks they have already attempted a couple of other products lines besides coffee including financing a movie and publishing, most appropriately, coffee table books. Although both have met with less than stellar success, the likelihood of the record label taking off is much greater. Whenever you walk into a Starbucks almost anywhere in the world, you are greeted by two things, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the sound of music. It's not necessarily always the case but it is quite common enough. The music that is usually played in the stores is often typical of the people working their. In the city you may have jazz, in the suburbs you may have classical or oldies or something of a similar vein. What I foresee happening now is that the individuality in the conformity of the stores will soon disappear.

What do I mean by that? Well, there are certain Starbucks locations I go into in the afternoons where I know the music I will hear will be something I enjoy listening to. The music in the store is also part of the experience for me and being something of a music lover, it can make a difference as to whether I linger in the store or I decide to move on. Of the locations I visit, there are usually jazz CDs playing in the background or the XM radio is tuned to jazz and I am often inspired to pick up some of the recommended CDs that are usually played by the staff at the store. In this way I can see how signing to a Starbucks label would be good, you'd almost be guarenteed to have airtime at some point in the stores. But my worry is that when you start allowing only certain records to be played, you're losing out on allowing the staff to be themselves.

For me, when I'm working, if I have some music in the background, it makes my day seem to go by a lot faster. I enjoy my work and listening to music I like keeps my mood up and my concentration focused. It's also the reason why I enjoy going to the Starbucks that I do. If I'm in the mood for instrumental jazz, I go to one location, if I'm in the mood for Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack then I head to the other. The proximity is all very close but it's the music and the mood that can help steer me where I need to go because each store is different in that sense. If we have one label for the company, it's quite likely that the stores would only play what the company's label has produced making every single store begin to seem the same; hence conformity in what was once at least a small measure of individuality.