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Beam me up

3 comments on Beam me up

Beam me up

: XM Satellite Radio has made two very smart branding/programming moves lately: First, Bob Edwards a show after he was dissed by NPR and now adding a Starbucks music channel.

XM Satellite Radio Inc. and Starbucks Coffee Co. announced plans for an exclusive multiyear marketing alliance which will add the Starbucks “Hear Music” channel to the satellite provider’s lineup beginning Oct. 1. The Seattle-based coffee retailer, which already programs and sells music to its customers through its Hear Music subsidiary, will pipe the new XM channel through its more than 4,000 stores nationwide beginning next year.

So Starbucks provides programming and branding blush and promotion to XM and XM helps make Starbucks into more and more of a music brand.

3 responses to “Beam me up”

  1. Dexter Westbrook Avatar
    Dexter Westbrook

    In his last years at NPR, Bob Edwards was a terrible interviewer, and seemed to be barely interested in the news he was reading. The XM Satellite Radio ghetto is a good parking place and will allow him to feel important, but I doubt more than a half-dozen or so people will be listening to his penetrating questions.
    I don’t understand the fuss about Edwards. He should be doing Books on Tape.

  2. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Just posted about this as well – I think the XM radio combined with in-store branding (details aren’t totally out there on this just yet) are huge for the satellite radio company.

  3. John Avatar
    John

    It’s kind of ironic that the channel I would have most associated XM and a laid-back atmosphere with — their “On the Rocks” channel — was pulled off the satellite system’s lineup on Monday. Depending on what their musical line-up is, the fact that Starbuck’s own channel is debuting this fall on XM may explain the reason for OTR’s depature (though OTR was meant to be enjoyed with martinis, not frappuchinos).