There has been an enormous amount of coverage on the Starbucks/McCartney tie-up. At the Venice Festival of Media, Pete Jenner suggested that Paul McCartney would have been better tying up with Saga Holidays than Starbucks. This may be a fair comment if McCartney wanted to target his new release to what some might feel is his existing and ageing core audience. However, he might have felt that the Starbucks environment offers him a chance to take his light music to a younger audience. We will find out in the near future whether his bet has paid off, but we can't help but take our hats off to him for trying a new avenue. What has he got to lose? As for Starbucks, they are not holding back on this release. When they officially released the latest Paul McCartney album a couple fo weeks ago, the first project on its Hear Music label, the coffee retail giant played the album nonstop, all day long, at its 10,000 shops worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of consumers purchasing their daily java from the chain each day, Starbucks is certainly betting that the audio blitz will drive consumer interest and album sales. But not because they’ve been pummeled into purchasing submission by the heavy rotation in-stores. No, what this strategy demonstrates is a good piece of music PR. The amusing media angle (i.e. playing the album non-stop), the tongue-in-cheek play on the album’s title, Memory Almost Full: the story has managed to generate a significant amount of press coverage this week. However, at a time where most brands are grappling with a move away from the PUSH model of marketing towards a more experiential model, one questions whether the audio blitz has been the right way to encourage the latte drinkers to consider new music from the old master. A little of the ingenuity that goes into creating their coffees flavours would have been welcomed in their communications strategy… All in all, a missed opportunity to do a little more for the HEAR Music label we think.