Billboard reported yesterday that Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX)'s Hear Music will re-release Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full album next month, with "new" tracks and a live DVD. The album was originally released in early June and debuted in the Billboard 200 at number 3, before going gold in the United States and achieving similar status around the world. For Starbucks, the album signaled a promising start for the coffee chain's music label, which enjoyed another high chart placement last week with Joni Mitchell's Shine debuting at #14 (Mitchell was the second artist to sign up with the label).

This second release of the McCartney album features three so-called "unreleased" tracks, but careful fans and listeners should note that "In Private," "Why So Blue" and "222" were originally released as a limited edition bonus disc upon the original June release. For the new release, these tracks are added to the original 13 and bundled with a live DVD that features the performance from a June concert at London's Electric Ballroom. It also comes at a time when McCartney is only performing at limited venues and is not embarking on the same kind of stadium world tour that followed the release of his two previous albums in 2002 and 2005.

Though the album signaled success for Hear Music and gave McCartney his highest charting album in ten years, it is all too clear that the coffee chain is hoping to gain more from this second release of Hear Music's initial success. The live DVD is a nice addition, but forcing fans and listeners to buy another copy of the album is far too reminiscent of what music lovers have been subjected to in the music industry. And it seemed like Hear Music was going to break that mold and be more in tune with listeners.

Billboard reported this afternoon that Paul McCartney's latest album, Memory Almost Full, debuted at #3 in the albums chart this week, with 161,000 copies sold. A strong showing for McCartney on new label Hear Music, founded by Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), is also a nice indicator for Starbucks, which fellow blogger Georges Yared wrote about this morning. The album, which has received rave reviews, debuted at #5 in McCartney's home country of England last weekend.

As far as touring in promotion of the album, the former Beatle has only announced two secret shows, one in London last week and one tonight in New York. A full blown tour, reminiscent of his 2005 or 2002 tours is dependent on the outcome of his divorce, which is currently on hold according to reports. The 2002 tour was chronicled by the live album Back in the U.S. which debuted with 224,000 copies sold in its first week according to Billboard.

While not a #1 release, such a strong debut by "new" label Hear Music should shake up the music world, primarily because so many copies of the album were sold at Starbucks locations. The album is available at most retailers and from online stores, but the marketing Starbucks put into the release included a "global listening party" where the album played continuously in stores the day it was released, making every coffee buyer a listener if not a buyer.

Eight days ago, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) began selling the new CD from former Beatle Paul McCartney titled Memory Almost Full. Currently, the CD is only available from Starbucks stores in all 27 countries and on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). The CD may be the spark that Starbucks needs to get its stock going, as it is selling extraordinarily well and may lift Starbucks' June same-store sales.

Starbucks is a long-term, excellent growth story. The company currently operates almost 12,000 stores, with a stated corporate goal of growing to over 40,000 units in the next decade. This year so far has been a frustrating one for Starbucks as its stock has traded as high as $36, but is sitting at its low point right now at $27.74.

Update June 13, 2007, 4:36 p.m.: "First-week sales of 160,541 copies marked a 33% improvement over those for Flaming Pie."

The first quarter earnings for Starbucks came in right at consensus expectations: no upside surprise. The market reacted with a rather large yawn and the stock has been trading sideways since. The Paul McCartney CD may be the catalyst necessary to get the stock and the same store sales popping in sync.

Yesterday, June 5, marked an important day for Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) as it launched the new Paul McCartney CD Memory Almost Full. Starbucks has the exclusive distribution for this new work of art by the former Beatle. The results should lift Starbucks same-store sales for June and July. It's a shot in the arm that Starbucks could certainly use.

I visited four different Starbucks stores in the greater Minneapolis area yesterday, and yes, I drank four different cups of coffee. I bought only one CD, however. I spoke with the managers of each store and asked about the CD's sales so far on the first day. Three of the stores sold 12 or more units, and the fourth store sold 10. My unofficial survey ended at 7 p.m. as I figured it was time for some decaf.

If these four Minneapolis, Minnesota stores are any indication of the rest of the Starbucks system, then the all important same-store sales metrics may see a good month or two. As a point of reference, the four stores sell about 4-5 CDs per day of various artists. Obviously, the exclusivity of Paul McCartney is a huge selling advantage for Starbucks.The four stores were also playing the CD all-day long for customers' pleasure.

One store manager was concerned about running out of supply by the weekend -- a nice problem to have. The Starbucks customer cards were also covered with the new McCartney CD versus the standard Starbucks logo. The early results will be interesting to hear when they are officially released in a couple of weeks time. Starbucks needs to beat the June quarter expectations to get the shares going again. The stock has been caught in a tight trading range, between $28-32 these past 3-4 months.

Starbucks is a tremendous long term growth story currently stuck in neutral. The McCartney CD may be just what the doctor ordered.

Georges Yared is the CIO of Yared Investment Research where he explores more growth stock ideas.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX)'s music label Hear Music released Paul McCartney's latest studio album, Memory Almost Full, in the United States today. The chain will host a "global listening party" in its 10,000 stores with an estimated 6 million coffee drinkers poised to hear the album simply by walking into stores in 29 countries. Fans interested in buying the album do not have to go out for coffee though, the album is also available in regular retail outlets as well.

For months, this release has caused a stir in how the music industry works, but in McCartney's England, copies sold at Starbucks stores will not count into the albums placement in album sales charts at the end of the week, BBC reports. Starbucks apparently has no intention of submitting sales data either and Ken Lombard, the executive in charge of Starbucks Entertainment, hopes that the album will sell 5.5 million copies, matching the Ray Charles compilation the company released a few years back.

These 5.5 million copies are not limited to Starbucks locations, but for fans and consumers, buying the album at Starbucks creates a dilemma. At Starbucks, the price is generally the listing price, while retailers like Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) offer sale prices that are significantly lower than list. Meanwhile, stocks for the coffee company closed at $28.83 yesterday, down from Friday's $29.13. This afternoon prices have fallen slightly lower.

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (it was actually 40 years ago today in the United States). To celebrate the anniversary, The Beatles' website launched a new mini-site for the album. Meanwhile, numerous news agencies and online sources commented on the anniversary, but where these news pieces fall short -- and I admit I have not read them all -- is that they fail to remember just how "landmark" the actual release was in London. It basically went on for the entire weekend, which this weekend in 2007 happens to mirror exactly with 1967.

The release culminated in a performance of the title song by Jimi Hendrix at Brian Epstein's theater a mere two days after the album was released. As the manager of The Beatles, Epstein had access to the album long before it was released and also entertained other musicians and artists with listening parties. Listening parties for the general public would have been held in record stores and people's homes. With the influx of digital technology and digital devices (like MP3 players) and the "traditional" record store's continual fall from existence, what we think of as a listening party could just be you or me alone with our headphones on. In that way an album like Sgt. Pepper would not be a very global event, even if a large audience has access to it. Our conception of the album as a device to bind us together in a moment has been lost.

When you think about Sgt. Pepper though, it's hard to disconnect it from the Summer of Love and everything else going on in 1967. That is not an altogether bad thing, but remember that even The Beatles as individuals did not stay with the album for long. As a group they moved into new projects right away (the One World performance of "All You Need Is Love" and the Magical Mystery Tour film), but in the 1970s Lennon especially would write a song that bashed the album and especially McCartney's influence in it. More recently Ringo Starr has commented that he preferred the album's predecessor and follow-up. As the artists and performers of Sgt. Pepper we should not expect them to have stayed with the album for too long. After all, it took them six months to create it, which in 1967 was an extremely long time to produce an album.

In Fox News' review of the new Paul McCartney album, Memory Almost Full, the writer comments that "McCartney, the most successful pop performer/singer/writer in history, has left the mainstream music business." Although his reference is in regard to the degree of support the former Beatle had received from Capitol Records, an imprint of EMI, for his 2005 Grammy-nominated album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, it made me wonder how big a role markets that are not music are beginning to play in the sale of music, both physically and digitally.

Memory Almost Full will be the first Beatle-related album available for sale digitally, a shift that McCartney's solo catalog may echo soon, but it's also notable because it's being released by Starbucks' (NASDAQ: SBUX) new independently owned label, Hear Music. This isn't the first time that the role of independent or small labels has been brought up in reference to the digital stores, but a name like McCartney's switching is big news indeed. His back catalog may not bring in as much as a digital Beatles catalog would, and understandably so. Still, the Beatles catalog will be available from EMI, a major music label, and it has been the most accommodating to digital sales thus far.

The point is that the "mainstream music business" was not able to keep an artist like McCartney satisfied. I realize that I am biased with regard to McCartney, but the relevance of this change cannot be overlooked for the music market. Hear Music probably should not even be linked with the music market because of its connection with Starbucks. If another industry, in this case a service industry, is able to better accommodate artists and ultimately fans, then the music industry needs to wake up. Sales are slow anyway.