Is Heading this Story with a Variation on "One More Cup of Coffee" Too Horribly Obvious?

The Dylan-Has-Sold-Out crowd will be in convulsions. Starbucks (coffee chain, not Battlestar Galactica chick) in the US is apparently releasing the classic Gaslight boot to be sold through its outlets. This news via the impeccably credentialed Alan Fraser at Searching for A Gem.

17 Feb 2005: I'm told that Starbucks Coffee in the USA will shortly be releasing an exclusive CD of Bob Dylan's concert at the Gaslight Club, New York City, in Oct 1962. Three performances from this 17 song show have already been released officially:

No More Auction Block was released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 in 1991

Handsome Molly was released on the exclusive Sony Music Japan live compilation CD Bob Dylan Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years Of Great Concert Performances in 2001.

The Cuckoo was released on a promo CD with purchases of Bob Dylan's book "Chronicles Volume One" in 2004.

This CD will be available in Starbucks Coffee shops and possibly from their
web-site.

This article expands the issue of coffee-led distribution:

In an unprecedented shift for music production, marketing and distribution, Starbucks Coffee Company (Nasdaq:SBUX) has helped take Genius Loves Company, the final recording from music legend and 12-time GRAMMY(R) Award-winner Ray Charles, to the number two spot on the Billboard Top 200 charts for the first week of sales(1) in the United States. The landmark CD was a collaboration between Starbucks Hear Music(TM) and Concord Records, Inc.

Starbucks reports that its Company-operated locations in North America sold more than 44,000 CDs, which is approximately 22 percent of total album sales. The numbers generated by the Company significantly outpace those achieved by other individual record retailers, both traditional and mass-merchants -- making Starbucks the number one seller during the CD's first week of sales.

Me, I don't care and see no adverse implications, when it comes to getting music I am an extreme pragmatist. Indeed since Columbia/Dylan seem to favour this model (the Chronicles tie-in CD was although released through Starbucks) I am all for it. The distribution end of the music biz is currently flailing around worse than a Vulcan in pon farr, needs all the help it can get.