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Government to decide whether new music store is allowed to open
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| Jayx1 |
So the government gets to decide whether or not a new music store opens based on "whether its good or not for canada"?
Excuse me, so what they are saying is we DO live in a communist country? Since when has the government been able to tell businesses that they can or cannot open other than zoning regulations?
This is completely absurd.
| quote: | Ottawa reviewing Starbucks plan to establish retail music business in Toronto DEAN BEEBY
Sun Oct 2, 3:02 PM ET
OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government is reviewing a proposal by coffee titan Starbucks Corp. to establish a retail music business in Toronto to make sure it's a net benefit to the country.
The Department of Canadian Heritage wants to know whether the new enterprise will offer acceptable levels of Canadian content and employ enough Canadian workers.
The federal cabinet ordered the secretive review under the Investment Canada Act on Sept. 12 to determine the impact on Canadian culture.
Starbucks is proposing an investment under its Hear Music brand, which it acquired in 1999 as two existing music stores in California.
The upscale java firm has been aggressively expanding its Hear Music operations in the United States. Starbucks has a Hear Music coffee house in Santa Monica, Calif., where patrons can mix and match songs to create customized burned CDs.
Two more such outlets are planned for Miami and San Antonio by the end of the year.
Starbucks also runs so-called virtual record stores in Seattle and Austin, Tex., where customers can download entire albums for a fee. The company also sells a small selection of CDs at its regular coffee outlets in Canada and the United States.
A spokeswoman at the Seattle-based firm's headquarters would not provide information about the proposed Toronto business, except to say it's not a Hear Music coffee house.
"We're committed to working with the government officials," Sanya Gould said of the application to Canadian Heritage.
"And we have filed a response to the government inquiry as required by law. Currently, the response is being reviewed and we expect further discussions to follow the review.
"This is all we have to say on this topic."
Starbucks was caught in a controversy in June when it struck a deal with Alanis Morissette to exclusively stock an acoustic re-issue of her 1995 hit Jagged Little Pill for six weeks.
In protest, rival retailer HMV pulled all Morissette stock from its Canadian shelves "consistent with the views of the majority of our customers," president Humphrey Kadaner said at the time.
Canadian Heritage's review of the Starbucks proposal will include assessing whether it will nurture new Canadian talent, and whether there will be a commitment to "the creation, production, distribution, marketing and preservation of Canadian cultural products in Canada, through traditional and new media," according to a departmental policy document.
The employment of Canadian workers is also a factor in the decision. The policy applies only to cultural investments that are foreign-controlled.
"When we are dealing with a company involved in the sale of audio recordings, one of the things we do look at is the extent to which they will provide Canadian content," said department spokeswoman Carla Curran.
"We want to ensure that Canadians can have access to music that's produced by Canadians, that's performed by Canadians, or that's written by Canadians. . . . That's a fairly important factor for us, quite a significant factor."
Curran declined to comment on the Starbucks proposal because of commercial confidentiality. The review process is expected to take at least 45 days.
Currently, domestic music stores in Canada are free of any regulatory requirement to stock or promote home-grown music.
A spokesman for the Canadian Recording Industry Association said his group could not comment on the Starbucks investment without seeing more details.
But president Graham Henderson said the association supports new approaches to retailing music, including the mix-match approach being used at Starbucks' Santa Monica outlet.
"The more digital channels we can open to the consumer, the better," he said from Toronto. |
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| El Kay Dee |
| no starbucks can take their $5 coffee and go to hell...no need for them to enter the media market... |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by El Kay Dee
no starbucks can take their $5 coffee and go to hell...no need for them to enter the media market... |
then thats a decision the consumer should make by not going to their store once its open.
the government should not be deciding which brand can open and which cannot.
thats insane! |
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| El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
then thats a decision the consumer should make by not going to their store once its open.
the government should not be deciding which brand can open and which cannot.
thats insane! |
lets move to iraq...bet they have a few starbucks music stores there already... |
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| Crazy Serb |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
So the government gets to decide whether or not a new music store opens based on "whether its good or not for canada"?
Excuse me, so what they are saying is we DO live in a communist country? Since when has the government been able to tell businesses that they can or cannot open other than zoning regulations?
This is completely absurd. |
what, you still haven't realised this?
it's a communist country in a capitalist disguise... ;) |
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| Moral Hazard |
, I didn't realize there were Canadian content rules pertaining to what record stores must carry in order to be allowed to operate in Canada. As with all Canadian content laws I think that this is just plain ed up! I despise Canadian content laws, they do nothing but allow for mediocore "artists" to gain undue exposure. I know that their intent was to ensure that Canadians are offered/exposed to a reasonable amount of "Canadian culture", however, very little of what is produced in Canada is Canadian beyond the nationality of the preformer and the location of the studio in which the material was produced. Essentially all CCLs do is extort businesses into carrying sub-standard products regardless of consumer demand.
That said, terming this practice to be communist is inaccurate... protectionist or nationalist would be more accurate. |
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| Jayx1 |
there arent currently laws pertaining to that. Thats what makes this even more ed!
The government should butt out. |
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| Moral Hazard |
^^^^ yep, that really is ed!
And what's with the "employment of Canadian workers" . Of course it will employ Canadian workers, what are they going to do bus people in from Buffalo every day?
Sounds to me like somebody at the Heritage ministry gets some good graft from the record retailers and said retailers are exerting their pull to try and stop this "threat". |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
^^^^ yep, that really is ed!
And what's with the "employment of Canadian workers" . Of course it will employ Canadian workers, what are they going to do bus people in from Buffalo every day?
Sounds to me like somebody at the Heritage ministry gets some good graft from the record retailers and said retailers are exerting their pull to try and stop this "threat". |
theres all kinds of corruption going on. Some we know about, most that we dont. This is why we need a new government ASAP. |
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| VERTiG0 |
| Hey, we're kinda like China now! |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
Hey, we're kinda like China now! |
we have been for a long time.
The government regulates EVERY TV AND RADIO CHANNEL WE RECEIVE for content. They actually decide what we can and cannot see/hear. |
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| Moral Hazard |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
theres all kinds of corruption going on. Some we know about, most that we dont. This is why we need a new government ASAP. |
In as much as I agree we need new blood and reform in Ottawa I have to note that changing the governing party will only mildly impact on corruption. You must remember that lobbyists know well enough that the Ministers are very reliant on their deputies. Thus the lobbyists lobby the senior civil servants as much as they do the polititions. In order to root out the existing corruption you'd need to re-staff the civil service (or the upper echalons anyway). |
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