'Schultz and MacKinnon came to believe that the core Starbucks customer, an affluent 25- to 50-year-old who's likelier to be tuned in to NPR than to MTV or one of the nine gazillion radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., probably feels ignored by the music industry.'"
Yeah, right! How sophisticated do they think these trendy farts are? The confuse their customer base with that of a real, privately owned, coffee shop.
Whether or not Starbuck's IS really quality or not, it certainly does not beat the quality of a privately owned espresso shop, like say...in Little Italy or in Soho. Because of the overpowering presence of these shops, many of us do not know this. If we allow this to continue these shops will be out of business and we will not have the opportunity to taste authentic espresso. I certainly don't want this to happen, but this IS a country where capitalism is king. Ironically, it can be king and unamerican at the same time. How many small businesses would lose their businesses and be out of work? How many cafe servers will have to take a job at these chains forgoing the type of wages and tips they once received. How American is that? Capitalism allow them to export our tech jobs to India having a huge effect on the local economy. If there is a decline in jobs there is a decline in consmerism. In effect it does very little to protect our rights as Americans.
"That which separates us as humans, will destroy us as humans."
Phr3akinR1can
In case I was misunderstood. I am a very liberal person. I was ranting about the comments the poster made in dislike of systems such as affirmative action. The poster mentioned he was too cheap to pay full price for school and wasn't pleased that he wasn't a minority or an underprivilaged citizen since most scholorship sponsors cater to them instead of him.
Yes, you said it right. Do you understand that the underprivileged deserve a financial break before the better off people don't you? If someone is born 3 financial grades below you they do not have a fair shake at a good education or in life for that matter. Those minorities with positive attitudes end up trying harder to excel given a break like this and don't take this type of advantage for granted. You excercised pure ignorance and poor taste when you refered to common scholarship recipients. Just because some of us prefer to spend our money on computer parts, video games, porn, or whatever else why do we think we deserve a free education? I agree that technical education is VERY expensive and that there aren't many obvious scholarshps available. I hope that changes, but only for the truly gifted people (no matter their racial background).
MP3's and CD-R's had SOME impact, I'm sure, but what is REALLY hurting sales is lack of talent, creativity, and innovation in popular music. Like it or not, the pop music market has made the music industry profitable in the past. There really isn't much of a variety out there anymore. There are many factors. The hottest item with many of the previous superstars has been artistic control and their share of the profits. The artist to label profit share difference is unfair to artists. The portion of the profit that should be going to marketing is argued by many artists as not being used to market their product. Since many mergers have gone on in the entertainment field the Artist must not only market him/herself, but other products as well. Most talented people will not want to put up with business as it is now and are either cutting out the middle man and going solo (ultimately earning more $$) or chaging their career objectives. The American music business is terribly corrupted by the Majors disallowing radio stations to play anything but what they approve. This leads to consumers not being exposed to new music and the problem snowballs to the poor record sales.
Slashdot Mirror
'Schultz and MacKinnon came to believe that the core Starbucks customer, an affluent 25- to 50-year-old who's likelier to be tuned in to NPR than to MTV or one of the nine gazillion radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., probably feels ignored by the music industry.'" Yeah, right! How sophisticated do they think these trendy farts are? The confuse their customer base with that of a real, privately owned, coffee shop.
Whether or not Starbuck's IS really quality or not, it certainly does not beat the quality of a privately owned espresso shop, like say...in Little Italy or in Soho. Because of the overpowering presence of these shops, many of us do not know this. If we allow this to continue these shops will be out of business and we will not have the opportunity to taste authentic espresso. I certainly don't want this to happen, but this IS a country where capitalism is king. Ironically, it can be king and unamerican at the same time. How many small businesses would lose their businesses and be out of work? How many cafe servers will have to take a job at these chains forgoing the type of wages and tips they once received. How American is that? Capitalism allow them to export our tech jobs to India having a huge effect on the local economy. If there is a decline in jobs there is a decline in consmerism. In effect it does very little to protect our rights as Americans. "That which separates us as humans, will destroy us as humans." Phr3akinR1can
In case I was misunderstood. I am a very liberal person. I was ranting about the comments the poster made in dislike of systems such as affirmative action. The poster mentioned he was too cheap to pay full price for school and wasn't pleased that he wasn't a minority or an underprivilaged citizen since most scholorship sponsors cater to them instead of him.
Yes, you said it right. Do you understand that the underprivileged deserve a financial break before the better off people don't you? If someone is born 3 financial grades below you they do not have a fair shake at a good education or in life for that matter. Those minorities with positive attitudes end up trying harder to excel given a break like this and don't take this type of advantage for granted. You excercised pure ignorance and poor taste when you refered to common scholarship recipients. Just because some of us prefer to spend our money on computer parts, video games, porn, or whatever else why do we think we deserve a free education? I agree that technical education is VERY expensive and that there aren't many obvious scholarshps available. I hope that changes, but only for the truly gifted people (no matter their racial background).
MP3's and CD-R's had SOME impact, I'm sure, but what is REALLY hurting sales is lack of talent, creativity, and innovation in popular music. Like it or not, the pop music market has made the music industry profitable in the past. There really isn't much of a variety out there anymore. There are many factors. The hottest item with many of the previous superstars has been artistic control and their share of the profits. The artist to label profit share difference is unfair to artists. The portion of the profit that should be going to marketing is argued by many artists as not being used to market their product. Since many mergers have gone on in the entertainment field the Artist must not only market him/herself, but other products as well. Most talented people will not want to put up with business as it is now and are either cutting out the middle man and going solo (ultimately earning more $$) or chaging their career objectives. The American music business is terribly corrupted by the Majors disallowing radio stations to play anything but what they approve. This leads to consumers not being exposed to new music and the problem snowballs to the poor record sales.