And That's When I Realized Starbucks Had My Number

When I was a teenager, I got into Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard through the Grateful Dead's rendition of "Sing Me Back Home." In my twenties, the Talking Heads' Remain In Light became one of my faves after hearing Phish cover the whole thing in concert. And I started listening to 1950s do-wop with a whole new perspective after Spiritualized's Jason Pierce spent 10 minutes gushing to me about the genre during an interview.

One of the best ways to discover new music is through the recommendations of artists whose musical leanings you already trust. Enter the Artist's Choice series produced by Universal Music's special projects division (UMe) and distributed through Starbucks/Hear Music.

I came across this series while waiting for my grande soy mocha (no whip) this morning, and was pleasantly surprised - not only by the artists doing the choosing, but also by the songs that they selected. On the racks were mixes created by venerable artists like Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, and the late, great Johnny Cash. The songs were the perfect combination of the familiar and the untested, the old and the new (Rilo Kiley, Mr Costello?!). The packaging was compelling, and the price - at $12.95 - was right.

Of course, I didn't buy anything, since my degree of music snobbery and my access to all of the songs on Rhapsody overrode the impulse to plunk down cash for what was essentially a greatest hits collection. But the desire was definitely there.

This isn't a new idea, these artists' picks collections. In fact, the iTunes Music Store has an entire selection dedicated to it. But their artists and their artists' picks are, for the most part, pathetic pop culture tripe - cobbled together from what the iTunes staff perceives to be the tastes of 15-year-old boys and marginally involved fortysomethings, neither of which is the store's primary audience (trust me - it's my job to know that). I mean, who really gives a shit that the guy who plays Monk on the TV show has an assistant named Natalie and that's why he likes the Killers song "Believe Me Natalie?" And is it any surprise that Courtney Cox likes "Free Bird?"

Even the actual musical artists that iTunes got to play ball are not exactly engendering respect for the section or for their own person with the songs they chose (though Ashlee Simpson gets grudging props for checking Jeff Buckley).

Let me break it down:

Contrary to popular perception, teens are actually coming back to the music market in a big way. In 2005, they bought more CD's than they had since 2002, and they were the only age group to increase the amount they spent on music overall (including digital). By comparison, the 36+ age group - the industry's largest buying segment - slashed the hell out of their spending.

If the music industry wants to recover - or at least speed this metamorphisis into a digital distribution model that may have thinner margins but is certainly more stable than the physical market which has been dropping like a lead zeppelin for the past five years - they need to focus not on the kids (who are all right), but on the moms and pops who still love music (In fact, they cling to it as the last remaining tendrils of a less stressful past). And they're not going to do it by pinging Keifer Sutherland about his love for the pop punk band Snow Patrol.

Starbucks and UMe are onto something with their Artist's Choice series. Elvis Costello's picks will not only appeal to a generation of formerly angry young men (and formerly active music buyers) now collecting their vente lattes and ignoring their Blackberrys for two minutes. But the inclusion of fledgling artist Rilo Kiley in the collection might just send them back to the record store to pick up the band's 2004 release More Adventurous. I know I did.