If you're a sixties-style artistic purist, you may want to skip this bit of news -- or at least take a couple tranquilizers first.
Bob Dylan's upcoming "Christmas in the Heart" album will be made available online to Citigroup rewards program customers one week before it hits stores. To be fair, Reuters reports that "Dylan, 68, will donate his proceeds from the Columbia Records release to charities that feed the needy. "
But still. Citigroup and Bob Dylan as partners? It's hard to argue that it's anything other than tacky, although the album does have some fantastic songs on it: "All I want for Christmas is a $700 billion bailout", "A Christmas Overdraft", "The Three Stupid CEOs" (featuring Vikram Pandit on the ukelele and Ken Lewis on the obo) and "God Rest Ye Merry Foreclosure Victims."
Dylan's decision to partner with Citi is puzzling. On the one hand, we can hardly accuse him of greed -- all the money's going to charity.
But it does raise questions about the legend's judgement. Couldn't he have found a less polarizing company to partner with?
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-01-2009 @ 12:13PM
peggy garry said...
I am so amazed that people aren't getting what Bob is doing. He entered into a LUCRATIVE license with Citibank - giving them the right to do this free download thing. He will get tons of money out of this. AND HE'S GIVING IN ALL TO AN ORGANIZATION THAT FEEDS THE HUNGRY!! Its a Robin Hood thing, guys. He's taking from the rich and giving to the poor. All proceeds from the Xmas album (not just the Citibank $) will be paid IN PERPETUITY to this same organization.