Originally posted by Xavier Bush, Power Forward:
When I first started listening to "indie" music in the mid-80's, the idea of selling your song to a corporate entity for use in a commercial was completely frowned upon, and seen as an instant loss in cred, both among bands and fans. Why has the cliamte changed so much?
A couple of things about the business that may make it more attractive (necessary?) for bands to give/sell their songs to commercials:
1. Radio has gotten more restrictive in the past few years. A lot more restrictive than even 5 years ago because of stations who used to play rock formats switching to urban or other formats. Plus, with the almost near monopolization of Clear Channel, playlists are so much more formatted than they used to be. It's incredibly rare for a band to break out on radio unless Clear Channel adds their song.
2. ....And with the new payola scandals, it's clear that Clear Channel and other stations won't really break a new band unless the label (must be major who has deep pockets) is willing to pay for play.
Bands who are smart and don't take big advances from labels can't get radio play so are resorting to other means, i.e. commercials, to get exposure. I also think the success of Moby's album, when he sold a bunch of songs to commercials and didn't get hardly any radio airplay, but still had a huge hit album, made bands realize they had to be more willing to do so if they wanted to get to the next level.
The funniest thing about this thread is that a lot of people can't remember the products being advertised but are remembering the music. If I were in a band, that'd be fine with me.
