Idolator

Although Starbucks has made itself one of the most powerful music retailers in the country—one in which "prestige" albums can be sold at full retail price, refueling the dreams of every record executive in Burbank and Manhattan—they have largely flown under the music media radar. The Hear Music label has received most of the attention by grabbing high profile artists like Paul McCartney, but the nuts and bolts of what gets into the racks next to the cinnamon swirl coffee cake has been more of a mystery. The New York Times, providing a service possibly no one asked for but me, looked into the balance between moving units and retaining credibility. The shift for Starbucks has been from a coffee retailer with a few discs that could still seem hand-selected, to twenty discs that seem more like the new release rack at Borders. Let's face it: no one's going to believe claims of quality control screening when the second James Blunt disc is a featured selection. More »