From CDs to Ads: Rock's New Economic Model

by jordan | May 28, 2008 at 06:27 am

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Apparently going Platinum isn't what it used to be, and record sales aren't the most accurate measure of a musician's success. This isn't new, as I remember hearing that Mike Patton still couldn't afford a car after Faith No More's The Real Thing took over the charts.

Still, though, as I read the article below, I was dismayed that having one's music used for an advert was the new yardstick for success. On the other hand, those whose careers were turbocharged by iPod commercials would heartily disagree with me.

So far the disc has moved just over 250,000 copies,according to Nielsen SoundScan — about half of what Spoon'smanager, Ben Dickey, believes it would have sold even five yearsago. "But as far as the band is concerned, the record is a hit,"says Dickey.
The reason? CD sales are no longer the yardstick the band uses.While hip-hop and pop artists ranging from Jay-Z to Britney Spearshave long used recordings to sell every- thing from perfume toliquor, rockers are only just starting to think of album sales as acomponent — rather than the sum of — the commercialequation. Spoon have been actively licensing their music for use infilms, television shows and a Jaguar commercial, making money,gaining exposure and moving up from clubs to 3,000-seat venues.

Perhaps no band has been more aggressive — or creative— with its licensing than OK Go. When the group treadmilledits way to YouTube stardom in 2006 with the no-budget video for"Here It Goes Again," it was having the kind of careermaking hitthat bands dream about, just as the commercial record industry wastanking. So OK Go manager Jamie Kitman sought licensingopportunities for the group — making deals for its music tobe used in everything from TV commercials and video games tocorporate seminars and cable TV "bumpers" (the music that's used tocome in or out of a program). Kitman estimates that when all theuses are tallied, OK Go will have granted more than 200 licensesand made old-fashioned hit-record money. "The accepted wisdom nowis that no one is selling records," Kitman says. "So how do youkeep the wheels on the bus? There's a person in my office whospends half her time fielding licensing queries."

I found this in Techdirt, which adds,

While the article does focus a lot on licensing deals, the much more interesting deals aren't the ones where songs are licensed, but where the musicians themselves are being paid to create new music. That's what the guys from They Might Be Giants are doing: Dunkin' Donuts is paying them a million dollars to create new music for Dunkin' Donuts commercials.