One week ago, none of Paul McCartney's songs (Beatles or Wings or solo) were available for legal digital download. Within one week, his EMI back catalog was added to the new DRM-free iTunes, and his latest album Memory Almost Full was just added to emusic.Macca's album is on Starbucks' HearMusic label, so the only place to buy the physical album is at Starbucks. I read this report today that said the album might be a "sales flop" in the UK because Starbucks sales aren't registered with Britain's official charts. So even if it "sells", it won't "make the charts". And if it doesn't "make the charts" it has to be be a "sales flop".
Since this is Paul's first album on a boutique coffee label after 45 years with EMI, and he's releasing it DRM free on all the digital services, I'm trying very hard to like his album, but after a couple of listens it's not happening. There are a few songs I like ("Ever Present Past", "Only Mama Knows", "Vintage Clothes"), but on the whole, it seems just as half-baked as all the other albums he's put out for the last 20 years. It gets bonus points for being the first one you can buy as high-bitrate non-DRM mp3s. Now both living ex-Beatles have their recent albums on emusic.
3 comments:
What I heard of the album (the samples on iTunes) sounded pretty good. I'll eMusic it when my downloads refresh in a week.
Minor correction: McCartney was not with EMI for 45 years. For a period of time in the late seventies and early eighties, he was signed to Columbia (at least in the US).
That's what I get for reading the UK press! According to AMG, the first Wings album (Wild Life) is the only original album that came out on Columbia.
You have to look at each individual album's entry in AMG to see the history of its releases. The main discography page lists only one entry (and not - evidenced by the "Columbia" entry for Wild Life, which was not initially on that label). According to Wikipedia, McCartney signed with Columbia for the US from Back to the Egg through to 1984: so, that album, McCartney II, Tug of War, Pipes of Peace, and, uh, Give My Regards to Broad Street. Now isn't that exciting.
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