It will probably come as a surprise to learn that Starbucks has better taste in music than it does in coffee. You might not even know that Starbucks has released a series of excellent compilation mixes and tribute albums. After all, their CDs aren't sold in record shops or bookstores, they aren't prominent in store advertisements and they haven't been reviewed by major newspapers or magazines.
In the past, Starbucks has exploited every promotional scheme short of stamping its logo on coffee beans -- from peddling coffee and recipe books in Barnes and Noble to offering bottled drinks and ice cream pints in grocery stores. Perhaps this is why the relative silence surrounding the company's music enterprise seems so ominous. When Starbucks doesn't even need to ask for money anymore, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee.
At first, Starbucks' modesty over its CDs seems utterly baffling. Believe it or not, the Seattle-based company deserves praise for creating some of the best compilations on the market. Its blues mixes feature the work of bona fide legends like Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Even more surprising is the unheard-of $10 price tag on most of Starbucks' albums. Who would have expected such reasonable prices for quality music from a store that doesn't sell a drop of coffee for less than a dollar? More to the point, why hasn't Starbucks better promoted merchandise of which it should be proud?
Part of the answer may be that Starbucks has learned by watching the mistakes TV producers and movie studios have made in over-marketing soundtracks. Nothing cheapens a good band's reputation faster than a performance on the latest WB teen drama. So by opting to stay relatively quiet about their music, Starbucks hasn't risked making any of its featured artists look like corporate sell-outs. And since there's now an infrastructure of Frappuccino in every town, the company has the luxury of relying on its retail network to advertise on a customer-by-customer basis.
And this is where the full power of Starbucks begins to look a little scary.
Starbucks has stopped prominently advertising via the media because Starbucks is a medium in its own right. Starting its own magazine, "Joe," and inking a multimillion-dollar contract with Oxygen Media are only the latest steps in a corporate migration to the publishing world. For years, Starbucks has exerted widespread influence by virtue of sheer cultural pervasiveness: Just ordering espresso at rival coffeehouses serves as a reminder of Starbucks' product line, because almost every competing business has added java milkshakes to their menu and renamed their largest drink size "Grande." (You won't find any stores calling their super-large size "Venti" because the word is a trademark of Starbucks Corp.)
Now, whenever any radio station plays an Ella Fitzgerald song it will remind frequent Starbuckers that they can purchase a good jazz CD with their next latte. It's not just an Ella Fitzgerald song anymore: It might as well be an Ellaccino. Since Starbucks has co-opted the work of good musicians, the music industry now unconsciously endorses the Starbucks brand name just by promoting good music. Could the same strategy explain the hush that accompanied Starbucks' magazine debut or its partnership with Oxygen?
This is hardly a new phenomenon. Starbucks is merely following in the footsteps of other successful retailers-turned-publishers, from Disney to Microsoft. But as this transformation takes place, perhaps it's worth considering if a company that charges $2 for a cup of flavored tap water can be trusted with a growing media empire.
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