Rolling Stones dig up rare songs for Starbucks CD

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Rolling Stones will release an
album of rare tracks next month in partnership with coffee
retailer Starbucks Corp. and the group’s Virgin Records label,
the partners said on Tuesday.

“Rarities 1971-2003″ will be released simultaneously on
November 22 in both Starbucks-owned outlets and in traditional
music stores across the United States and Canada. Virgin, a
unit of Britain’s EMI Group Plc., will handle the foreign
release by itself.

The nonexclusive deal differs from recent controversial
arrangements Starbucks has had with other major artists. Pop
singer Alanis Morissette allowed Starbucks to sell her latest
album six weeks before everyone else, resulting in the HMV
chain in her native Canada pulling her other albums off its
racks in protest.

The Stones, currently on a tour of North America, suffered
a similar fate from some retailers in 2003 when they gave
electronics chain Best Buy Co. Inc. an exclusive sales window
for a DVD package.

Starbucks, which is in the early stages of an ambitious
plan to become the leading destination for music buyers, has
enjoyed its biggest success with Ray Charles’ Grammy-winning
posthumous album “Genius Loves Company,” which was a
nonexclusive release.

The album has sold about 3.1 million copies in the U.S.
with Starbucks accounting for about 730,000 copies, according
to Charles’ Concord Records label. Additionally, Starbucks sold
75,000 copies of a holiday package that included the CD.

The new Stones disc boasts 16 tracks, including live
versions of concert staples like “Tumbling Dice” and “Beast of
Burden,” dance remixes of songs like “Miss You” and “Harlem
Shuffle” and b-sides, such as their live 1971 cover of Chuck
Berry’s “Let It Rock.” All have been previously released, but
some are hard to find. The band has been wary of releasing old
gems as it prefers to keep the focus on its new material.

“With every studio session, there are always songs that
never appear on the final album and at the time you think, what
a shame that song did not make it,” Stones vocalist Mick Jagger
was quoted as saying in a statement.

It will reach stores just 11 weeks after the Stones
released their first studio album in eight years, “A Bigger
Bang.” Despite critical acclaim and heavy publicity surrounding
the tour, the Virgin release has been a commercial
disappointment, debuting at No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts, and
sliding to No. 63 in its sixth week, with cumulative sales of
295,000 copies, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.

Starbucks was involved in the manufacturing, distribution
and marketing of “Rarities,” but Starbucks Entertainment
president Ken Lombard declined to offer financial specifics.

“We felt this was an exciting project and a perfect fit for
what we’re trying to provide to our customers,” he said in an
interview.

Lombard said Starbucks has been working with the Stones’
management since they partnered on a 2003 album in the chain’s
“Artist’s Choice” series, where musicians choose their favorite
songs and discuss their impact.

Reuters/VNU