Music From Starbucks: “It’s Sir Paul Mocha-rtney!”

Hats off to the Sun for the best headline about the new service by Starbucks. Following the HearMusic chain and the music CDs offerings (like Ray), the coffee giant will launch Starbucks Records which is expected to sign, record and produce its own artists rather than license other labels’ songs. The label will launch the next album by Paul McCartney.

The Sun also suggests that there have also been talks about putting kiosks in Starbucks shops so customers can create their own compilations while “waiting for a brew.”

The NY Posts (which has a spookily similarly written article) adds:

The caffeine pusher has enough licensing deals in place with major and independent record labels to build its own digital-music store a la Apple’s iTunes, or it could bring in a partner to help build the digital infrastructure.

It will be interesting to see whether this move would see the redevelopment of the music retail experience. On his blog foe the Guardian, Alan McGee asks if we still need old school record shops:

When was the last time you went into a record shop? It was about a month ago in Tokyo for me. It was a boutique type of establishment, a bit like Rough Trade – it had vinyl and all the hip releases. Yet it still felt like a museum. All the music I want I can get off Amazon or go on MySpace to hear. There’s no real need for record shops any more.

Meanwhile Brit UK retailer HMV continues it’s walk to the elephant’s graveyard: with plunging share-price it’s announced plans for some sort of social networking service and suggests that only a fifth of its revenue will be from online sales by 2010. A fifth! How about all?