As you may already know, Starbucks is giving away a different free iTunes music download every day for 37 days in celebration of their slick new WiFi Music Store. The promotion is called Song of the Day and boasts a selection of artists from Paul McCartney to Herbie Hancock, John Fogerty to John Mayer.
Few of these free tunes are songs you know well. Ever heard Annie Lennox’s Dark Road? I’m guessing most of you haven’t.
But it’s still a really cool promotion. In this day of outrageous piracy litigation, you really can’t complain about new music being proliferated via means that are 100% lawsuit-free. Getting a new Dave Matthews song at no cost is super cool pretty OK whether you’ve heard the song before or not.
So far, five songs have been released. My weakness for Starbucks is well documented, so it should surprise no one to learn that I have all five of them.
That Can’t Be Right
The Starbucks nearest to my home has the download cards from previous days setting out in front of the register for people to take as they wish; the current Song of the Day is doled out one per customer. I looked at the four piles of cards and it occurred to me that something appeared off. I ordered my drink, made small talk with the barista for a bit, then turned my attention back to the four little stacks. What was it about the collection of songs that didn’t set right with me?
Then it hit me. The four songs were Bob Dylan’s Jokerman, KT Tunstall’s One Day, Joni Mitchell’s Night of the Iguana, and Keith Urban’s I Told You So. The smallest pile, by a significant margin, was the Keith Urban pile.
WTF?
I suddenly felt sort of ill. I mean, this is Seattle, damn it – home of Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell! It’s the greater Seattle Area from whence came bands like Heart, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains! And while I’ll admit that the available Song of the Day artists are hardly in the same musical genre as the Seattle artists I mentioned, it truly blew me away that a country song would be more desired here than a song by Dylan or even KT Tunstall (who has enjoyed at least one #1 hit in the US).
So there you have it: a cowboy beats out a rocker and a pair of folk legends in a city known more for its rock music scene than its shit-kicking prowess. I don’t get it, but there you go.
Oh, and yes, I did take a Keith Urban card, but only because I needed the info for this blog post and I didn’t know for sure if Starbucks would have it available online. So there. Nyah.*
I’m now off to find out what this new KT Tunstall song sounds like. I hope it rocks.
*BONUS: The first Keith Urban fan to PM me can have the download code from my card. Wouldn't want a perfectly good download to go to waste!
Cthulhu is my Copilot 
Eddie VetterUmmm, you did that on purpose, right? To see if I was reading. I agree that it's strange that they had so many of the other cards. If I liked Starbucks and iTunes I'd grab a card and some songs. Sounds like a cool idea.
"Ummm, you did that on purpose, right? To see if I was reading." Heh. While I did think of you when I wrote it, the misspelling was because I had only had a few sips of my coffee and was still more-or-less asleep.The drastic error, for which I am deeply ashamed, has been fixed. *shakes head in self-disgust*
I'm guessing that a lot of people who moved to Seattle have relatives in Texas and they're getting started on Christmas shopping. Right?
There is a serious factual error in your tale:
Getting a new Dave Matthews song at no cost is super cool…
I assume a correction is forthcoming.
Yeah, that's gotta be it. That's what I'm going to tell myself. Cheapskate gifts for Texans. Sounds good to me.
OK, maybe "super cool" was a bit strong. Sure, I'll edit that, too. Why not? God knows my blog is nothing if not markedly accurate in all possible areas. :PLet's go ahead and see how much of this post can be re-written by my peeps. Anyone else have a fundamental problem with something I've written here? I'll see what I can do to oblige you. This once.
HAHA! You're allowed to think a Dave Matthews song giveaway is "super cool" if you want to. It's perverse and wrong to think that way, but laws haven't been enacted to throw you in Gitmo yet.
YET.
No, no. You are right. Dave Matthews is not super cool; getting free music is super cool. Dave Matthews just happened to be the best artist featured in the promotion that I hadn't mentioned in the post already.Should I have chosen Gloria Estefan instead?
I'm sorry: Me, myself and I think dave matthews music, especially free, is <blink>"super cool"</blink>. And actually, I am perverse, but I usually don't blog about that so I guess this will be my only admission. 🙂 And the whole thing about Keith Urban and country and such… I don't get it either. But there are a lot of country music fans outside of Seattle, and perhaps you live amongst a large population of them. Better keep your windows shut. 😉
I have heard of Dark Road – it's from Annie's latest album and is super cool. Go here and you can listen to the whole album, track by track, and it is fine. There's videos, too.If you get a chance to download it for free, grab it! Then you can email it to me! Cos I expect this is not a a promotion anywhere near me – and I cannot stand the smell of Starbucks anyway – all that flavoured coffee makes me feel nauseous.
"I'm sorry: Me, myself and I think dave matthews music, especially free, is "super cool"."Uh-oh. Painted myself into a corner, I have! Hmm, maybe if I put Dave Matthews in some sort of a box, I can somehow find a way for him to be super cool and not super cool at the same time!
"If you get a chance to download it for free, grab it!"I'll definitely snag a download code for Dark Road for you, Bookmole, if at all possible. I usually hit Starbucks pretty early, so chances are good. 🙂 I'll let you know.
Um, hi, I'm a lifelong country music fan, and somehow I manage to remain bipedal and more or less coherent. Unless I've had too much gin.
Keith Urban is not only not a cowboy (not to mention he's Australian), his music is only questionably country. He writes songs with Richard Marx for fuck's sake. I like some of his songs, but most of his music is what I call "Baby Boomer country." The past–oh, I don't know, 15 years or so–has seen this huge influx of "country" music listeners who used to listen to pop and rock and now want their country to sound just like pop and rock, only less threatening than Marilyn Manson or something. And, thus, the genre of Hank and Willy and Waylon and Johnny Cash now has Keith Urban and the like–Keith Urban is at least a talented musician, and he writes many of his own songs, so you have to give him some credit for that. Also, he has that adorable Aussie accent. Anyway, "I Told You So" is not one of my favorite songs.
I'd say, from the list you posted so far, that many of those songs are aimed at the same demographic as the Baby Boomer country I was talking about. You know how it is–the oldsters need nonthreatening music to be the soundtrack of their rocking chair years.
"Um, hi, I'm a lifelong country music fan, and somehow I manage to remain bipedal…"Just to be clear, this post isn't intended as a judgment of country music as a genre. I just thought it was odd that in a city like Seattle, Keith Urban would be more chosen then those other artists.That said, I see what you're saying about the evolution of country music. The new "young country" is much different than the country I know from childhood. I admit I called Keith Urban a cowboy having never heard an entire song of his.Hope the post didn't offend you, GB. Apologies if it did.
Are you kidding me? It was PERFECT the way it was before! How dare you edit that?!?
Who won the contest? Was today, no?
"Who won the contest? Was today, no?"Peeps have until midnight Pacific time tonight to enter. I'll be posting the winners on Wednesday, the 10th.I'm glad you're so excited! ^_^
Yay! Yay! Yay!