You're So Vain... I Bet You Think Starbucks' Decision To Get Out Of The Music Biz Was All About You

from the singing-a-new-tune dept

Fri, Jun 4th 2010 2:38pm — Mike Masnick

Last year, we wrote about singer Carly Simon's decision to sue Starbucks for not promoting her album enough. As you may recall, Starbucks, for a little while, tried to get into the music business by building on its success in selling a few CDs in stores and trying to start its own record label. The company invested heavily in its Hear Music subsidiary, but the results weren't very good, and about a year later it dumped the plan. In the interim, however, it did release a few albums, including one by Paul McCartney. Carly Simon had also signed on, but the label shut down five days before her album came out. She claims that because of this, she suffered greatly, and went on to sue. Of course, there seemed to be a lot of holes in the argument. First of all, she still sold a ton of albums, and the company had given her a huge advance (over half a million). On top of that, this could have happened with any record label.

In April, the judge tossed out the dispute, pointing out that Simon's actual deal was with Hear Music, the subsidiary, and not Starbucks. Unable to leave things alone, Simon has filed an amended suit, claiming that Starbucks misrepresented how much it would promote the album. But, once again, record labels change promotional strategies for albums all the time. On top of that, these days, it seems like any musician should realize that much of the promotional effort on new albums really falls on the artist themselves, rather than their labels. Blaming the label may seem like an easy target, but it's a stretch to then claim they had some legal obligation in terms of how the album was promoted.

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Filed Under: carly simon, contracts, music
Companies: starbucks

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2010 @ 2:45pm

People still purchase full albums?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2010 @ 2:50pm

techdirt going to save carly simon now? of course, the techdirt way is always better!
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DocMenach (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 2:58pm

Re:
Lower case idiot: What the heck are you talking about?

You have degenerated into a worthless troll.
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Pixelation, 4 Jun 2010 @ 3:16pm

Contract
From the NY Times article...
"“All of a sudden you’re the ugliest girl at the prom, and you’re not picked,” "

So sue Starbucks to make up for it. Nice!

Let's see the contract.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2010 @ 3:20pm

Re: Re:
if i keep degenerating long enough, i will finally reach your level and we can have a discussion. perhaps by christmas?
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Ima Fish (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 3:24pm

Starbuck's problem was in signing established artists at the end of their careers. They should have been more organic and tried to grow the careers of up and coming artists.
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DocMenach (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 3:24pm

Re: Re: Re:
Actually, I've got to give you credit. That was a pretty good comeback.

Maybe you should stick with the comedy instead of your usual stuff.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2010 @ 3:37pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
it is a classic, like pie in the face. except we can no longer do pie in the face, because we have to worry about the poor starving orphans in Detroit.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2010 @ 4:11pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
That's not true. Why not substitute pie filling for shaving cream? Then no one has to worry about the poor starving orphans in the same way that no one really worries about the poor starving artists, like Carly Simon.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 4:17pm

I'm torn
On the one hand, this is ridiculous. On the other hand, any time I see artists suing distributors I get a case of the warm fuzzies.

Win/win, I guess.
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Karl (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 5:03pm

Promotion
It's a rare occasion when I take the side of a label against an artist, but I might do so here. Simon's claims seem ridiculous.

On the other hand, it depends on the contract. It is entirely possible that Simon was prevented from promoting the album on her own - and given that Starbucks wanted to promote it in connection with their stores, that wouldn't surprise me.

I'm also curious as to who owns the copyright at this point. It's entirely possible that Concord Music Group controls it, and can sell it to the highest bidder, against Simon's will. (Like what happened with the Beatles.) If that's the case, she definitely has a right to be angry.

She still wouldn't win, of course. Right or wrong, that's the way the music biz works, and the law is on their side.
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Hephaestus (profile), 4 Jun 2010 @ 7:22pm

Re:
Agreed, they should have done the whole "Charmed" TV show type of music. One problem with big corporations is the "bet on what is know" attitude and dont risk money on the unknown. There is this "sameness" due to things like six sigma, and a lack of identifying creativity that is erroding the ability to compete from corporations in the US.
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Cathy, 5 Jun 2010 @ 5:31pm

This lawsuit actually sounds reasonable
I'm with Kyle. The complaint is not as far-fetched as I originally thought, and actually speaks to the assertion that she should have done her own promotion -- it alleges she did, but ultimately there was nowhere to actually buy the album!

Even setting aside the issue on who may own the copyright for the record (meaning that even if her market for it wasn't destroyed she might not even be able to try to distribute it through someone else), it does seem that she has not gotten the benefit of the bargain Starbucks convinced her to strike with them, and may have been materially damaged as a result, which would be potentially actionable.

I do agree that this sort of thing may be very common in the record business, of record companies signing artists and promising the world, and then not promoting their album, but that doesn't make it right.
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Jenni, 6 Jun 2010 @ 12:58pm

NPR Music
It might be interesting to contrast Starbucks' aborted attempt at the music biz with the piece on NPR Music in the Washington Post. They're not directly selling, but they've become a new branding channel. One thing they've done better than Starbucks is allow for previewing: full albums streamed the week before they're released and full-length concert podcasts. The other thing is their emphasis on new indie acts (LCD Soundsystem, Decemberists) instead of, well, overpriced has-beens (Paul McCartney, Carly Simon).

Here's a personal example: the All Songs Considered podcast played "Airplanes" by Local Natives. I saw one of their SXSW sets, then bought their album on iTunes the next day and went to their next Austin show.
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Peterson, 7 Jun 2010 @ 2:34am

I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commentters here!Keep writing.Thanks.

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Anonymous Coward, 7 Jun 2010 @ 6:33am

Best headline ever...!
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