Paul McCartney was introduced as the first artist signed to Starbucks Corp's new record label, lending an iconic nameplate to the coffeehouse giant's latest entertainment venture.
The former Beatle, who made an appearance on Wednesday over a video feed from London at the company's annual meeting, said he expects to release his next album on Starbucks' new Hear Music label in early June.
McCartney said he was impressed with Hear Music's push to use Starbucks' 13,500 retail outlets as part of its sales plan. He also praised the company's dedication.
PHOTO: AP
"For me, the great thing is the commitment and the passion and the love of music, which as an artist is good to see," he said.
The company said McCartney was signing a one-album deal with Hear Music, the partnership between Seattle-based Starbucks and Concord Music Group announced last week. Financial terms were not disclosed.
McCartney's rights to his previous song catalog are not part of the deal with Starbucks, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment unit. McCartney most recently released records through EMI Group PLC.
The label plans to sell albums through traditional and digital music outlets, with no advance sales and no additional content for Starbucks stores.
Rather than overshadowing the next artists to join the label, McCartney could serve as an "anchor" artist who may help sway other musicians to the label, said Geoff Mayfield, a senior analyst for Billboard magazine.
"I can't criticize them for choosing a Beatle to start their enterprise," Mayfield said.
The McCartney announcement is another big step for Starbucks' attempts to spin part of its consumer appeal into the entertainment business. The coffeehouse chain does not plan to slow its aggressive growth, despite recently publicized worries about weakening the coffeehouse titan's brand, chairman Howard Schultz told investors.
Starbucks, which has more than 13,500 stores worldwide, plans to add 10,000 more on its way to doubling in size over the next four to five years, Schultz announced on Wednesday at the company's annual shareholders meeting.
Leaders reinforced a long-term commitment to 40,000 stores worldwide, half of them outside the US.
Starbucks officials expect to open their first Russian and Indian stores this year.
Schultz, who lamented a nearly 10 percent slide in the company's stock in the past year, asked shareholders not to lose confidence in the world's largest coffee retailer.
"I'm here to tell you that I believe that there's never been a better time to be a Starbucks shareholder," Schultz said. "We are building Starbucks for the long term, and I would hope that after 15 years ... you would give us the same trust that you have in the past."
The meeting came as negative headlines, questions about brand strategy, and investor concerns about operating numbers have knocked about 20 percent off the stock's price following a 52-week high in November.
Schultz responded to critics who have questioned the company's strategy since an internal memo he wrote to top executives was leaked to the press last month.
In the e-mail, Schultz worried that the company's growth had led to "dilution of the experience" customers get in Starbucks stores.
"Some speculated that perhaps it was a signal to Wall Street -- I wish we were that smart -- that perhaps we were going to slow down the growth," Schultz said on Wednesday.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS