Rolling Stones dig up rare songs for Starbucks CD

10/25/2005 9:00 PM, Reuters
Dean Goodman

The Rolling Stones will release an album of rare tracks next month in partnership with coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. and the group's Virgin Records label, the partners said on Tuesday.

"Rarities 1971-2003" will be released simultaneously on November 22 in both Starbucks-owned outlets and in traditional music stores across the United States and Canada. Virgin, a unit of Britain's EMI Group Plc., will handle the foreign release by itself.

The nonexclusive deal marks a departure from recent controversial arrangements Starbucks has had with other major artists. Pop singer Alanis Morissette allowed Starbucks to sell her latest album six weeks before everyone else, resulting in the HMV chain in her native Canada pulling her other albums off its racks in protest.

The Stones, currently on a tour of North America, suffered a similar fate from some retailers in 2003 when they gave electronics chain Best Buy Co. Inc. an exclusive sales window for a DVD package.

Starbucks, which has aimed to boost revenue by adding small CD kiosks in stores, has enjoyed its biggest success with Ray Charles' Grammy-winning posthumous album "Genius Loves Company," which was a nonexclusive release.

The album has sold about 3.1 million copies in the U.S. with Starbucks accounting for about 730,000 copies, according to Charles' Concord Records label.