Bizmology

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Grammy and the business of advertising Posted: 12 Jan 2011 10:32 AM PST When did it come to pass that practically all the bands nominated for this year’s Best Alternative Music Album Grammy have their songs plugging Honda, Victoria’s Secret, and other businesses on national TV? Last night’s Colbert Report took two of the nominees to task in typical brilliant fashion. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c MeTunes – Grammy Vote – Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney & Ezra Koenig<a> www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive The truth, in this case, bears repeating: nobody…well, almost nobody makes money from selling albums anymore. The once-reviled practice of licensing music to advertisers has, for many artists, become a primary means of making a living. Yes, it’s amusing to watch Stephen Colbert lambast Vampire Weekend and the Black Keys for having “whored” out their music. But record labels are no longer sure-fire cash cows for artists, and where they’ve fallen by the wayside, corporate America has stepped in. Damian Kulash, frontman for indie band OK Go, recently elaborated on this tectonic shift in The Wall Street Journal. “Corporate sponsorship of music and musical events in North America will exceed $1 billion in 2010, up from $575 million in 2003, according to William Chipps, author of the IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based newsletter that tracks and analyzes corporate sponsorship. By comparison, the U.K. music licensing organization PPL reports that record companies’ global annual investment in developing and marketing artists stands at $5 billion,” Kulash said. ”The numbers measure slightly different parts of the industry, but from an artist’s standpoint, one thing is clear: Outside corporate investment in music is rapidly climbing into the range of the traditional labels’.” Add live concerts, merchandise, and streaming services to the equation, and even little-known artists can at least break even these days. Call it a “re-tooling” of the music industry’s basic workings, if you will. As long as most folks continue to get their music for free, however, it’s hard to blame artists for linking with corporate interests. Even artists nominated for a Grammy. ~ Photo by Stepan Mazurov, used under a CC-Share Alike license.

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