words by jace.
this is a single-entry archive page. click above for the now thing.
Off the top of my head, some relatively
'indy' folks who have licensed their music to advertise
cars/cellphones/sneakers/booze/ perfume: Dabrye, Stereolab, Alias, Prefuse 73,
Oval, Coco Rosie, and now, M.I.A.
Selling
out is a weird thing. One day Mister NYC Adman called me on my cell
phone (!). He told me he'd had 'a hell of a time tracking me down', and that his client wanted to use a track released on my label
Soot.
No joke! Babylon wanted to use an Ove-Naxx song in a TV commercial. But we'll get to that later. First--
1) The going rate to license your track (& image) for a major 30-60 second TV advertisement these days is around $50,000. Artist-label contracts vary, but usually at least quarter of that sum goes to the label, and the remaining 75% heads towards the performer/songwriter/publisher morass.
If
the song is going to be more prevalent -- say, as part of a
cross-platform jingle/theme song for a new product -- the licensing
fee can easily be three times that.
Yeah, $150,000 for a minute of your art (and a sliver of your soul).
2) In nearly all these cases, the company wants to use your song as-is. You made it, released it into the world, and now they just want to pay you for the right it to play in the background. In other words, the original contents of the song remain untouched (just trimmed down to 60 seconds), but the context is vastly, violently shifted.
In music, however, context is nearly everything-- context equals context, but it also equals content, and credibility.
Does
this even need explaining?
Character,
biography, style, nuance, charisma, context -- these make or break
artists. In music, as in real estate, location is everything. So when
M.I.A. said This
is still my song. It doesn't belong to Honda."
, she was technically right, but willfully
ignoring the way context functions.
Look at the enormous differences in cool-cachet generated by Galang as a blazing, banging 12 white label, or my man Ruben's bang-alang-amazing video for it (which received the William Gibson stamp of approval, that's called reach) versus Galang as a cheerleader chant for an automobile manufacturer (not that I have anything against the petrochemical industry, or protectionist steel embargoes, or any of that stuff...)
It's
just this: I put on a Dabrye record once and someone came up-- yo
Rupture, I can't believe you're playing a TV commercial! In their
eyes, I had sold out for playing TV music. Corporate rap
and major label r&b is fine (and, paradoxically, a way to keep it real or, if white,
to register that you too can get crunk and fraternize with black peoples), but I had crossed the
line by playing a Dabrye tune that my audience mistakenly assumed
existed because of the cellphone ad, rather than the other way
around.
Cultural aura belongs to whoever pays the most to promote and exploit the product or song its attached to.
3)
Having your music in large TV ad campaigns is a handy way of getting
new fans. Coldplay sales in Spain took off in 2001-2 after the Red
Cross used their song in a beautifully-filmed TV ad. Stores put
stickers on their CD cover saying 'this is the group from the Red
Cross commercial!'
Artists receiving corporate money who feel vaguely guilty about it always say something like i will use the extra money to make more music or start a label and release other people and share the wealth or whatever, but they are also seeing dollar signs, the serious secondary income from having your melodies pumped into millions of households. Remember, an ad for Honda is also an ad for M.I.A. A lot of the people who still buy CDs are folks who only learn about music from obtuse mass-culture osmosis, like channel-surfing. Its a golden market and a commercial is one of the best ways to tap into it.
4) Once you have a platform, you can use it to speak. (This is partly why we all like Kanye again.)
5) Small, but interesting: often companies will shell out all this money to license tunes, then shelve the advertisement. You get paid, nobody sees the ad. Babylonian logic at its finest.
6) The sellout argument is completely theoretical unless someone steps to you with a real offer on the table, as real as rent. The obvious answer to Wayne's grinning title -- What Would Noam Do? -- is that Chomsky has M.I.T. university tenure, it no longer matters what he does or doesn't do for money, his job is safe, his regular paycheck a certainty. The interesting question would be WWND if he were freelancing, and young, and wanted to buy an apartment...
It's easy to climb up to moral high-ground if you're only offered a grand. It's hard to chat lofty if the amount on the table is 50 times that and you are hungry.
Musicians like having their music heard by as wide an audience as possible. Musicians like getting paid. Musicians like winning over new fans.
And
so if the TV depicts a car winding around mountain curves while this
is happening, and a white guy's voice-over says word like 'confidence'
and 'horsepower' and 'you own the road' before your catchy chorus kicks
in, well, those are minor details.
7) I only know 2 musical groups/musicians who have been approached with
substantial corporate money and said 'no'. Each is pretty
well-established, but even split between members and songwriters it
would have been no small amount of money per person. I understand &
am awed by their stance, but I personally can't afford that level of
idealism, simple as that.
8) Eight, eight, I forget what eight was for!
9) The
cultural logic of late capitalism is hustler pride trumped by
boardroom subcommittees vetoing
insufficiently authentic authenticity; is
Canal Street Gucci, sidewalk blanket Armani (made under more
equitable sweatshop conditions than the real thing); is Baudrillard
gone bling saddled by coke crash paranoia; is the fact that folks like
to wear t-shirts and hats and shoes emblazoned
with corporate logos and consumer brands. Kids feel good wearing a
Nike swoosh or Adidas bars.
This logic is also the consumer-as-critic; is ethnic friction pasteurized into something manageable, something fun to dance to, AND the debate around that focusing on off-target issues. Did Anticon's Alias receive blog scrutiny when he sold his beat to be used in a Pontiac car commercial? (We don't even have time to go into the relevance of their appropriation of Chief Pontiac's name...)
Better yet, to quote DJ A from Wayne's comments: <<Would anybody be upset if UGK was used to promote a new Chevy Impala? No, fools would be like "golly gosh this is so cool! I LOVE that southern rap is getting the attention it deserves!!">>
10) ...back to Mr Bigman Advertiser, Mr Ove-Naxx, and my role in the El Nio-confused crosswinds of global ad campaigns and their attendant capital flows.
I am fully prepared to sell out, 100%, I sit by the phone every day patiently waiting for The Man to call: "Mr Rupture, we wanna take control of your media image, simplify your idea(l)s -- complexity doesn't work well in a mass market situation--, and give you heaps of cash." heh-heh... Let's just say that when the phone actually rang, I was caught off-guard.
His client wanted to use Ove-Naxx in a worldwide TV ad campaign (for a highly-visible brand in Europe and America, although they aren't so established in Japan). We would have received more money than either of us had ever made in an entire year. For real. When I explained the situation to Ove-Naxx, he just laughed at the thought of his music being beamed at youth via their television sets.
Ove
keeps it dangerously, deliriously real. I 've posted on him before;
he runs an anarchist noise pub at night and works 12-hour days doing
roadside construction--since the pub is a zero-profit institution, a
temporary autonomous zone that happens to be a money pit. Sometimes
he'll disappear from both worksites for a coupla days, asleep
somewhere. Ove's girlfriend has gotten used to it.
Several
of my Japanese friends who are as good musically as Ove is get
side-work composing for TV and such. I think we're both Dadaists at
heart -- the point of all this background is because we didn't even
have an 'ethical talk' or 'sellout worry' moment, we were on the same
wavelength-- oh yeah!
I think everybody in the world should hear Ove's music!
I
think we should get paid loads, all the time, by corporations big and
small! Individuals too!
Oppositional logic isn't half as fun as internally conflictive logic, miscegenation theory, duppy irrationalism. Babylon, to remain marketable -- to market rebellion and effervescence and conflict itself -- needs to incorporate discordant voices.
Standing on the shoulders of vertical giants, we whisper rhizomatic fairy tales into their collective ear, arguably lidded, but then there are always listeners who don't yet know that they want to be awake...
CODA
(completely true
After a small avalanche of faxes and preliminary contracts, they rejected Ove-Naxx, went for crap drum & bass instead, made the commercial, then shelved it.
So
much money never seems real to begin with.
w&w (URL) - октомври 4 2005
damn, dude--way to lay it down. i appreciate the elaboration on my lazy, if provocative, post. appreciate the personal perspective, too. i tend to agree with you on most points, especially the last one: "so much money never seems real to begin with." that's the trick.- - - - - - - -
[ragudave] - октомври 5 2005
So I am right in thinking that artists and labels get more money from TV adverts, rather than providing some music for a film?- - - - - - - -
893 (URL) - октомври 5 2005
JC! Great! But which Ove track?- - - - - - - -
jc - октомври 5 2005
phillip morris? yes. rather have money gaining interesting in my bank account than theirs. Ove track: Wabisabi Violence.- - - - - - - -
jc - октомври 5 2005
film licensing varies. Video game licensing is where its at-- i hear that Def Jux earns great money from it.- - - - - - - -
Alex dot:alt (URL) - октомври 5 2005
I guess it mostly depends on the artist and their original credibility and their perceived authenticity pre-sellout. Like when you sight CocoRosie as an example - I'd be slightly more dissapointed that they are willing to give up their touching, personal music which is so emotionally-driven to an ultimate-cynical thing like an advert. That act really leaves no space for the song's original emotional content to be believed in. It strips them of their gravitas, and in that case, yes I'm willing to consider that as a creative submission, a sell-out.- - - - - - - -
[ragudave] - октомври 5 2005
Even The Fall get used on adverts nowadays. Vauxhall used Touch Sensitive but edited out the vocals. Now what is a Fall track without vocals....- - - - - - - -
ripley () (URL) - октомври 5 2005
"With MIA on the other hand, we're talking about a 30-something art-school graduate (right?) who has borrowed heavily from musical styles she has no ehtnic connection with and is paying no dues to - neither finantially nor in terms of artistic credit - and who milks global politics and the very surface of guerilla chic to her advantage. "- - - - - - - -
boaby - октомври 5 2005
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/05/doo..- - - - - - - -
jc - октомври 5 2005
15 million, unreal...! thnx 4 the link.- - - - - - - -
Alex - октомври 5 2005
Riple, please don't pick up so heavily on the art school part of my comment. The rest of the points I made stand! And being a London art-school attendee myself, I'm aware of how cynical that world is and in MIA i identify a cynical market manipulator as well as a musician. Of course it's possible to have come from a poor deprived background and to then do well - i'm a first generation immigrant and I'm on the way to doing ok myself. That's not really the point at all. Also, I'm not passing 'rockist' moral judgement that authenticity and earnestness is better or wose than earnestness and emotional integrity - but there IS a difference between these two and, for me at least, MIA falls mostly into the former category of artist. Of course we live in the post-modern age where self-design and self-awareness as a pop entity is pretty much vital. My point was just that MIA 'sold out', if that how you want to put it, when she first decided to 'borrow' sounds from Rio and Kongston.- - - - - - - -
w&w (URL) - октомври 5 2005
let me get this straight: MIA has no "ethical-connections" to "kongston"?- - - - - - - -
w&w - октомври 6 2005
oops. did i say "(sub?)text"? i meant to say, see point #6.- - - - - - - -
dm - октомври 6 2005
Alex - I am from Australia. Does this mean i can't make music with a house beat cause i've got no links from Chicago (but own alot of records from there)? No techno cause im not from Detroit (but own alot of records from there)? No dub basslines cause i have no links to Jamaica (but own alot of records from there)? I'm not Native-Australian either, so no indigenous music either. Damn, what can I make? Please tell me.- - - - - - - -
andrew - октомври 6 2005
my buddy khonnor did a track for a mitsubishi mix cd... we all thought that was kind of funny at the time. nobody cared - he got paid a decent bit, and isn't that what working is about? getting paid for your work... BUT - an ad is different, i don't know MIA - i don't think any of you do so arguing her art school back ground and who she really is - is kinda silly (almosty as silly as her shouting out to kingston.. but whatever).... the thing is, does she or any popular artist need that extra cash? (elastica probably did)... im not sure what her financial situation is, but it can't be too bad at this point.. i hear buckyblahblah in every car stereo and club around these days... it's not an issue of integrity so much as it's an issue of what you need. which i guess turns into an issue of integrity... i'll fucking do a car commercial(avoiding SUVs)if someone asks... im never sure if im gonna make rent - it'd help out... oh and so you all know V/Vm did a playstation commercial. it got canned.- - - - - - - -
Alex - октомври 6 2005
^- - - - - - - -
Alex - октомври 6 2005
V- - - - - - - -
andrew - октомври 6 2005
i think that's a reasonable assumption; your authenticity is a result of all your character - morals and ethics included. art vs design... in the end art is just an illusion we create - im not taking it any further than that. art is design.- - - - - - - -
bear13 (URL) - октомври 6 2005
"we can go round and round and round in debates about the authenticity of the artist and how that relates to subject position and intention and all that, but i'm not sure it sheds any light on the question of whether or not to endorse products for cash. "- - - - - - - -
Mr. M () - октомври 6 2005
I'm wondering what Kurt Cobains reality show would of been like if he hadn't of shot himself...'The Cobains'..nice- - - - - - - -
mk - октомври 7 2005
hmm.. interesting to think of the 'evolution' of a song as such a linear thing... whitelabel->hit->commercial tool... i think it would be awesome if something only available on a commercial, i.e. some hip breakcore or grime slapped together by a jingle maker, got sampled, looped up and released as a whitelabel to become an underground hit.. kids spitting over it as a ringtone...- - - - - - - -
hector () - октомври 7 2005
Hell YA!- - - - - - - -
ghislain - октомври 7 2005
BTW, it was me you wrote the english/french comment.- - - - - - - -
ghislain - октомври 7 2005
Fuck, all my comment disappear... fuck- - - - - - - -
confucius () (URL) - октомври 7 2005
Mozart wrote symphonies for the rich and powerful (to make them look good in front of their rich and powerful friends, among other political functions), and Michaelangelo did a thing or two for the Roman Catholic Church to further their cause.- - - - - - - -
Andren () (URL) - октомври 8 2005
Funny how things work out that way. Consider yourself the wiser and, if anything, stoke the fires of your creativity.- - - - - - - -
n-ron () (URL) - октомври 9 2005
Yep, your story reminds me of the possibilities of the Trojan Horse strategy. Get in past the wall and strike! Like you say in point #4., create the conditions of possibility by any means necessary, that's the way.- - - - - - - -
reacher () (URL) - октомври 9 2005
get that money for sure --- but try not to forget that there's something sad about it ------ - - - - - - -
minikomi - октомври 10 2005
hi jace can you send me an email? i cant find your address & i wanted to discuss something ! nerdfunk(ATTO MA-KU)gmail.com- - - - - - - -
jc - октомври 10 2005
m/k- if you click on the 'jc' at the bottom right of each main post, next to the date, you get my email addr.- - - - - - - -
john power () (URL) - ноември 2 2005
it's an odd one for sure, taking money for what you percieve to be art, but i wouldnt let it trouble you too much.- - - - - - - -
shinjuku zulu () (URL) - ноември 22 2005
new to the site. good writing. no time @ moment for longer text, but a couple thoughts, some of which ppl. have covered:- - - - - - - -
jason bong () (URL) - декември 19 2005
hey jace,- - - - - - - -
order cialis7844 () (URL) - ноември 2 2006
adipogHi guys its me again. Can you look- - - - - - - -