Word: majors
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...early January, Schultz (who took over Starbucks in 1987 when it was a six-shop coffee bean retailer), resumed the title of CEO, a position he originally left in 2000 for a seat on the board of directors. Since then, the company has announced a number of major changes. On January 30, the company said it would stop selling breakfast sandwiches (in response to criticism that the odor covered up the smell of coffee), slow its rapid pace of opening stores in the U.S., and no longer report comparable-store sales to Wall Street - a sign that the company...
...pace with the fall in sales of CDs: record-company revenues from such tangible products tumbled roughly 6% in 2007, leaving firms with some $19.3 billion in total sales last year, a quarter less than in 1999. The digital market is hardly new, yet it still seems to catch major record labels dozing. Alt-rockers Radiohead last year famously distributed their album In Rainbows without the help of their former record company, EMI, instead letting fans decide how much to pay the band to download it. Meanwhile, adding to the sense that this entire industry is in flux, musicians' other...
...major record companies have the most to sort out. The problems at EMI, the smallest of the Big Four record companies, have been getting more ink lately than its artists, which include the likes of Lily Allen and Coldplay. With EMI's slice of the world market under pressure - its share fell to 12.8% in 2006 from 13.6% the previous year - U.K. private-equity company Terra Firma acquired the firm for $6.5 billion last August. The new owner has been quick to make its mark: earlier this year EMI announced it was axing as many as 2,000 jobs...
...weren't worrying enough that their revenues are sliding, the major record labels are also having more trouble than ever controlling their artists. Prince cut out Sony BMG last July to give away his latest CD through a U.K. newspaper, cannily betting that he'd make up for this lost income by boosting sales of highly lucrative concert tickets. And in October Madonna abandoned Warner Music to throw in her lot with Live Nation, a California-based concert promoter. "The record-label system is built on 100% control," says Leonhard, and major labels "have lost that...
...they spend an average of just $20 a year on downloads. To the crucial teenage market, paying for music is as outdated as picking up a newspaper. But companies can get something in return for giving them music. Advertising-supported free music services such as Last.fm pay the major record companies from ad revenue; in return, their users can stream the companies' music for nothing. Such outlets offer record companies the chance to build a relationship with younger fans in the hope those users will later migrate to more lucrative products such as music dvds. Cell-phone users can also...