Sell Out or Commercial Acumen? 

Is it selling out for a band/artist to let their music be used for advertising campaigns?

The opinions surrounding this issue remain highly charged and I suppose if you asked Justin Timberlake whether he would agree to do the music for McDonalds again it might be a resounding NO!  A major musical faux pas to release I’m Loving it after that atrocious ad campaign, guaranteed to lose you (some) fans.

However, some people think why not, particularly if it means your music becomes obvious to a bigger audience, you get paid handsomely for it and it potentially flags you up to music industry bigwigs looking for the next best thing.  Other people on the other hand feel it’s the ultimate sell out, the nail in the coffin as far as your “cool” persona goes and means you fail to become a martyr for your art.

To me I don’t think it can be seen as that implicitly simple from whichever way you look at it.  Other factors should be addressed.  There are more important issues than whether it’s deemed cool or uncool to go down that route in regards to your music.  And is that really what we should be basing things on?  Surely that just adds to the bullshit that makes certain bands and music exclusive to certain groups of people.  Ultimately I don’t think music should be perceived by whether it is cool, whether it’s the next ‘nu’ thing or where abouts it is being played.  In those circumstances you then run the risk of making everything in the same ilk that is “Shoreditch” these days, where people go just because they perceive it to be a trendy place because Peaches Geldof et al have been pictured there.  Call me old fashioned but I listen to stuff because it’s original, clever, lyrically astute, sounds good???

If a musician has the opportunity of his or her music being used for an advertising campaign or as being synonymous with a product then really is it such a bad thing.  Is it really the case that people genuinely think that musicians should not make money from their art, because lets face it there is not much money to be made these days unless your in the realms of the Madonna’s, U2’s or Coldplay’s of this world.  Illegal downloading has already put paid to that and it means that the artists without major label support or publishing deals lose out more so than those at the top of the chain. 

Call me naïve but I always thought that most musicians whilst they love making and playing music, they ultimately want to become recording artists whose art is sold to their fans along the way.  And was it not always the dream to shout those auspicious words “Hello Wembley…”?

The term ‘selling out’ in my mind is bullshit and is generally used by people who want to keep music or any form of creativity underground.  There’s too much quality out there being made by truly dedicated people that in my mind should not be kept a secret.  Therefore surely there is no shame in allowing good music to be used in advertising   Particularly if you live somewhere like the States where a good tune could sugar the pill when you are subjected to commercial breaks every 5 excruciating minutes. Just give some thought to how many times you might have watched tv or gone to the flicks and heard a song on an ad that you really liked and wanted to know who it was by.  Past and present.  Thank God for google! 

It’s reaching out not selling out. 

xoxo