EMI Partners With Guinness to Celebrate 250 Years of Tasty Beer

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Think of February 9 as a warm-up for St. Patrick’s Day; it’s the 250th Anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the lease on the St. James Gate Brewery. To help you celebrate, EMI is releasing Guinness 250 – Music From the TV Ads. Ads for the Irish stout have featured an eclectic mix of artists over the years. The Ramones, Dusty Springfield, Al Jolson, Patti Smith, Jesus and Mary Chain, ELO, and Future Sound of London are a few of the artists featured on the 17-song compilation. It will be released simultaneously in the U.K., U.S. and a few other European countries through a new partnership between EMI and Guinness owner Diageo Ireland’s Diageo Global Licensing.

This deal is the first between Diageo Global Licensing and a music company, and the two companies plan to extend it to the wide assortment of other alcohol brands under DGL. Diageo currently trades in over 180 countries and hopes to effectively exploit the overlap between consumers of its beers, wines, and spirits and music consumers to extend that global reach. As for EMI, this is but the beginning of a new global strategy. Graeme Rogan, EMI U.K.’s Senior Director of New Channel Development, says the partnership “is an example of how EMI plans to open up new channels and routes to market for our artists and music. Our aim is to proactively enter into strategic partnerships with global brands, such as Guinness and develop additional revenue streams for the benefit of all parties.” Hopefully they’ll come up with something better than those mini-CDs that briefly appeared on plastic soda lids at movie theaters.