Hear Music Off To Solid Start

Sales Reported Solid

The signing earlier this month of JAMES TAYLOR to HEAR MUSIC, the record label owned by STARBUCKS ENTERTAINMENT, completes a triumvirate of "heritage" artists that includes PAUL MCCARTNEY and JONI MITCHELL, reports THE FINANCIAL TIMES. HEAR MUSIC has made a hot start, with MCCARTNEY’s "Memory Almost Full" album, released in JUNE, already boasting global sales of more than 1 million. About half of its 500,000 US sales have been in STARBUCKS stores.

As music companies struggle with the economics of declining footfall at retail, HEAR MUSIC is an attractive proposition to such veteran acts. A partnership between STARBUCKS ENTERTAINMENT and the BEVERLY HILLS-based CONCORD MUSIC GROUP, it has far lower overheads than a major label and an umbilical link to its own distribution network: Starbucks’ 13,000 stores worldwide and their 44 million customers a week.

HEAR MUSIC’s releases are distributed by UNIVERSAL. MARK CROSSINGHAM, of UMG International and CONCORD’s GM in LONDON, says the relationship with HEAR MUSIC has started fruitfully. "We sold more copies of the MCCARTNEY album outside NORTH AMERICA in its first three weeks than his last EMI album has sold in total outside NORTH AMERICA."

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