Cold Coffee for Starbucks
Paul McCartney's much-ballyhooed summer CD, Memory Almost Full, wasn't really a flop, but neither did it bring in much in profit for Starbucks, whose Hear Music label put out Sir Paul's latest album in a one-off deal that launched a foray into exclusive music sales.
The idea was that Boomers, patiently waiting for their coffee, would snap up what's really a good album (total disclosure: I bought my copy on iTunes) in big numbers, reversing a long-term downward trend in music-industry sales. Industry analyst Bob Lefsetz reports that, two months after release, Memory Almost Full, sold a paltry 6,821 copies last week for a total of 511,488 units since release.
Doing the math, that's less than $10 million in sales -- not bad, you say, until you figure in the no-doubt mammoth advance paid to the artist along with the advertising and marketing costs. So it's back to the record-industry drawing board.
The idea was that Boomers, patiently waiting for their coffee, would snap up what's really a good album (total disclosure: I bought my copy on iTunes) in big numbers, reversing a long-term downward trend in music-industry sales. Industry analyst Bob Lefsetz reports that, two months after release, Memory Almost Full, sold a paltry 6,821 copies last week for a total of 511,488 units since release.
Doing the math, that's less than $10 million in sales -- not bad, you say, until you figure in the no-doubt mammoth advance paid to the artist along with the advertising and marketing costs. So it's back to the record-industry drawing board.
posted by Brian Steffen | 8:31 PM
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