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.

Like so many summer's full of blockbuster film sequels, this summer is also full of music follow-ups. May has already seen the release of several successful new albums, most notably Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight, which debuted at #1 in Billboard's album charts and scored the highest number of copied sold to date this year. Also released was the new Maroon 5 album, which knocked Linkin Park off the top spot this week. The most talked about new album is Paul McCartney's first on the new Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) music label Hear Music.

All three of those albums are fairly guaranteed sellers, primarily because the artists' last albums enjoyed great success. The new methods of promotion that surrounded these releases also certainly speak to the large scale of their releases. Who hasn't noticed the Paul McCartney catalog that is now available on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store and the new album that has been available for pre-order since May 15th and still won't be released until next Tuesday. These dates and the time may mean nothing, but consider it in comparison to seeing a movie poster for the new Harry Potter movie at the theater complex.

New albums are not the only heavily marketed and promoted music products for this summer though. With the pending reissue of the Traveling Wilburys catalog in a couple of weeks, Warner Bros. is prepping another reissue to promote or at least ride in that release's coattails. Tom Petty, who was a Traveling Wilbury, is set to reissue the album he first released last summer with four new tracks. A year ago that album peaked at #4 in the album charts, so it has seen success already. Is this a ploy to strengthen Traveling Wilburys sales, or to strengthen Petty's sales alone?

The point of citing these release dates and different facts of release and success is that this summer (and pretty much every summer for the last few years) has been full of large scale music releases that resemble how we think about the big movie blockbusters. With so much talk within and outside the music industry this year about Digital Rights Management, and what labels are going to drop the technology, we can't overlook the fact that business is going on as usual.

Who has the audacity to say that ... even think it? Nobody is bigger than McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD). After all, didn't McDonald's change the way we Americans eat? Didn't fast food and drive-thrus become the norm? Didn't McDonald's capture the hearts and, therefore, the appetite of every little kid with its Happy Meals and Ronald McDonald character? Didn't McDonald's even say that the world was ready for their menu and actually expand around the world? Even in France!

The answers to all the above questions is yes. McDonald's set the table (pardon the pun) to the way we view and eat fast food. Its success fostered major competitors like Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC), Wendy's International (NYSE: WEN) and Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC). It boasts a number of celebrities who have worked there in the past.

But McDonald's is still McDonald's. It has tried to be hip and cool by actually offering salads, but do you really go to a McDonald's to eat a salad? The movie Super Size Me did not do anything for its image either; yet McDonald's still marches on.

McDonald's went public in 1965 and a $2,250 investment back then would be worth nearly $2 million today. What a great success story; 31,000 units spread out over 119 countries. It is truly one great American export. The brand name alone is among the world's top 10 most recognizable and worth untold billions of dollars.

So, who is going to be bigger than McDonald's? The answer is Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX).

Early in May, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and EMI Group PLC (OTC: EMIPY) announced that Paul McCartney's catalog would be released digitally for the first time before the end of the month. A week ago, another announcement was made that the material was to be released this week on iTunes. As of this writing, no such release has occurred on iTunes, but according to PC World, the tracks are all available on Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS), RealNetworks Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK)'s Rhapsody, Viacom International Inc. (NYSE: VIA)'s Urge, and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Zune Marketplace.

On iTunes (and I checked), the only available McCartney albums are the pre-order for his new Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) flavored album and his 2005 Grammy nominated Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Furthermore, comparing the price of individual tracks on iTunes, $0.99, with those available for purchase (not the subscription service) on Rhapsody, $0.89, I am wondering if all of Apple's pronouncements about EMI and The Beatles are falling apart. iTunes is not the only store that is privy to the new EMI tracks (without Digital Rights Management technology), but clearly it is now the only store without a significant EMI catalog. It is also the catalog that is supposed to lead into The Beatles' catalog being released. Whether that happens on iTunes seems cloudy at this point, but other digital services will likely stay ahead of Apple's service in this game.

Apple's stock has been growing for a while now, closing at $110.69 yesterday and already well above $112 today, and any lack of Beatles-related material on iTunes won't dampen that progress.

In an e-mail sent out by Paul McCartney.com and reported by various news outlets, EMI announced last Friday that McCartney's entire post-Beatles catalog will be released digitally across all platforms tomorrow. McCartney has been at the forefront of significant musical announcements since he left EMI in March for Starbucks Corp.'s (NASDAQ: SBUX) new music venture, Hear Music.

The announcement marks the first time a member of The Beatles has released material in digital stores (excluding two live tracks released from Live 8 by McCartney in July 2005). McCartney's first release for Hear Music Memory Almost Full will be the first new album by a former mop-top with a digital release alongside a physical one.

EMI has also been leading music news in the past couple of months with the company's announcement in early April that it will drop the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, which prohibits the transferring of digitally purchased music or other media encrypted with the software. Rumors have been constant before and since that announcement that a Beatles digital release was imminent.

The only questions that remain are whether the physical release accompanying the move will be scheduled at a much later date, and whether or not this music will be released without DRM.

McCartney is the first Beatle to move digital and if nothing else rumors are sure to begin that The Beatles catalog is next.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that Highfields Capital Management LP, which owns an 8.5% stake in Wendy's International Inc (NYSE: WEN), has sent a "strongly worded letter" to Wendy's chairman James Pickett, urging the fast food chain to pursue a sale.
• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Weekday Trader" column wrote that Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) shares could appreciate another 20% or more from a recent price of $18.06 per share, if investors can appreciate that the PC market is not permanently sluggish.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Saudi Aramco are close to signing a deal to build a petrochemical plant worth about $20B.
• German prosecutors and investigators are looking into allegations that a German paint supplier paid bribes to at least five Volkwagen AG (OTC: VLKAY) employees to gain contracts with the company, reported the Financial Times.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board is heading up a consortium that is in talks to possibly buyout the parent of Bell Canada, BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE), reported the New York Times.

WEBSITES:

• Paul McCartney reportedly told Billboard that a deal is "virtually settled" to make the Beatles catalog available for sale online.

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.

Following the market close today, Starbucks Corp. (NYSE: SBUX) will be reporting its fiscal second quarter earnings numbers. When the numbers come out this afternoon, analysts are expecting to see the company report earnings per share of $0.19.

There are going to be a couple of points of interest today during the call. One thing I expect the company to address is the upcoming release of the new Paul McCartney album. His latest effort, Memory Almost Full, will be the first release on Starbucks' new label and will be available on June 1 at your local Starbucks. The new album will be coming out during the week of the 40th year anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band and should give a nice boost to Starbucks numbers next quarter.

I posted on the possibility of Paul McCartney moving over to a new label founded by Starbucks last week, and as of yesterday it is official: Paul McCartney will anchor the new Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) label Hear Music. According to Billboard.com, McCartney's next album will be released in June and mark the beginning of his new relationship with Starbuck's and the end of his relationship with Capitol Records.

When I blogged before I did not know what to make of the development or how to accept McCartney leaving Capitol Records. I still don't, but now at least I know that I have to accept and acquiesce to the journey to Starbuck's in the middle of the summer to buy an album I know I will want (so I'm not a coffee in the summer fan, and I blindly look forward to anything McCartney intends to release - even the classical music that some listeners may not even be aware that he writes or releases).

All I can say is that I hope this is a good move for the knight. Heather Mills is certainly not supposed to be able to benefit from this move, or at least that is what McCartney said the reason for the move was when it was originally announced a week ago. In any case, it is now official, so we must look forward to "hearing" how the new label will sound with McCartney at the helm. It is certainly in great hands with the musician, but what does this all mean for the record selling industry? That is a question to think about with a warm cup of joe in hand.

Yesterday Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) announced that it has landed its first artist for its new Hear Music label. The company definitely decided not to mess around with its first signing and managed to pull in one of the all time greats, Paul McCartney.

All of you McCartney fans will be ale to get your first serving of the artist after nearly a two year wait this June. The McCartney deal is only for one album at this time, but I guess we will just have to see how well Starbucks can market the new release before we hear if there are any plans for future deals.

I must say that I am very impressed with Starbucks landing such a prominent artist for its first signing. McCartney is considered in many circles the most successful musician in popular music history, as he is listed in Guinness World Records. The credibility that this signing brings to Starbucks' new label is tremendous and should help give the label some pretty nice leverage in signing future artists. After all, Sir Paul has sold over 100 million singles and the most covered song ever in "Yesterday."

Who would have thought that the rock icon would be signing with America's biggest coffee chain at the age of 64 back in 1967 when the song "When I'm Sixty-Four" was released on the revolutionary rock album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Starbucks expects to announce deals with two more artists by the year-end and eight more next year.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Now that Starbucks Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SBUX) signing of Paul McCartney to its Hear Music label, the coffee chain is going to need to accommodate the people who are going to flock to its stores.

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Non-fat Viagra Frappuccino -- Why should the health conscious ED sufferer sacrifice taste?

2) Starbucks hair dye -- People will never believe that you are 64;

3) Menopausal iced coffee -- Cool down those hot flashes and get a nice buzz;

4) Calcium-fortified Chai tea -- Great tasting and bone-saving;

5) Laxative latte -- Regularity was never so delicious.

McCartney's fans may need some help in understanding why they should pay so much for a cup of coffee. I'm sure Starbucks is working on that marketing challenge as well.

The term "iPod" has been registered to Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) since 2001. In order to strengthen its right to the term it has begun to trademark the word "pod," not only in the US, but in Europe and Australia also. In the Sydney Morning Herald, writer, Louisa Hearn divulges into the "global tug-of-war over the rights to the word "pod.""

In Australia, many local brands such as mPod, LPod, BPod, ePod, and DigiPod have all received some sort of notification from Apple demanding them to give up their respective trademarks. It is said that those who don't willfully give up their trademarks will have to enter negotiations with Apple, and if that doesn't deter these companies, they could face a lengthy and expensive legal fight with the iconic American company.

One would think that those allegedly infringing on Apple's pods would not wish to tangle with the Cupertino company. Even so, one local Aussie company, TigerSpike, a small mobile content company that has developed a mobile delivery service call mPod, is not backing down so readily. Bad choice: if Apple Computer prevailed in its trademark infringement case brought by Paul McCartney and his Apple Corps, I suspect that TigerSpike will have its hands full.

Luke Janssen, chief executive of TigerSpike, asserts, "We have been using the mPod name for a while and it is one of our main products. We didn't think of the iPod when we first came up with it." Janssen knows that it will prove extremely difficult going up against Apple since he runs a company of 11. Kudos to Janssen for at least trying, while other companies such as Sydney-based Salmat Data Solutions (which withdrew its trademark application for ePod last month) have simply folded their hand and walked away from the table.