The Starbucks Aesthetic

Starbucks is bucking the trend and using its distribution advantage to try and blend culture in its mocca-capuchino-latte, so to speak. It's experimenting with promoting films, CDs and DVDs, and possibly books. Is this really going against the Long Tail theory or exploiting a niche market that's open to this idea? Read about it in this NYTimes article.

These days the so-called long tail model of cultural consumption — the 1.5 million songs on iTunes, the 55,000 films on Netflix — is getting a lot of attention among business theorists, and teenage boys are getting a lot of attention from the entertainment complex. But Starbucks relies on a previous model: a narrow range of blockbuster hits geared toward an older, educated audience.

The Starbucks Aesthetic - New York Times