Starbuck’s Music Campaign A Smash. More Planned.

MusicBiz.com reports: “One of the most surprising record sales success stories this year has to be Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company, which scanned over 100,000 records in each of the first two weeks of its release. Charles, of course, is a legend, and his posthumous release was expected to do well. But what made those numbers surprising was where a lot of those records were sold – namely, Starbucks.

As the featured release in its new Hear Music series, Starbucks generated slightly over 20% of his first-week total, and to this day remains the biggest single source of sales, over Wal-Mart or any traditional retail chain. Yet the Charles project will not be a one-time phenomenon. In an exclusive interview with Starbucks Entertainment President Ken Lombard, the retail coffeehouse boutique will be using its undeniably successful lifestyle brand to become a significant retail source for music often overlooked by traditional outlets.”