Monday, May 05, 2008

The Money Shot:: Starbucks Bails On Music Label While Whole Foods Jumps In, iTunes Still The Big Dog As It Turns 42 (in Dog Years)...

More headlines...

How Starbucks Is Changing Its Tune (Advertising Age)
MS: It will no longer aim to discover new artists or produce records. Its Hear Music record label, which was formed in March 2007 as part of a larger effort to forge relationships directly with artists and distribute their recordings at Starbucks locations, will now be run entirely by the Concord Music Group, which had been a partner in the division.


Whole Foods Moves Into Void Left By Starbucks (Advertising Age)
MS: The grocery chain announced a new initiative with Inspire Entertainment to bring the first of what it hopes will be many hand-picked CDs to its stores. Apparently, there are already 130 stand-alone displays for music in the company's stores, and Whole Foods has been selling a small selection of discs at the check-out for some time now -- although SFS has never noticed them before. Inspire claims the displays have tripled music sales, although who knows the kind of scale that's on.


iTunes Turns 6 - Much To Celebrate, But Danger Ahead (Hypebot)
MS: As DRM free music spreads to more stores and new services, iTunes will find that it has more than just Amazon to compete with. MySpace Music, Nokia's Comes With Music, imeem, WE7,Applelogo SpiralFrog, Rhapsody and Napster, niche players and services not yet imagined each have the potential to whittle away at Itune's market share.


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