It’s certainly no secret that people have been licensing music from up and coming bands for ad campaigns for the last decade. What hasn’t been discussed as much is the appeal for brands and, more recently, how that trend is influencing the advertising world of today and breathing life back into the music industry.
Let’s start with why a brand finds indie artists appealing in terms of selling their product. What does the word indie even mean? Indie is, of course, short for independent, which translates to people working on their own outside of large corporate influence. This allows for and rewards risk taking and innovation, which is necessary in order to succeed as an independent business, band, artist etc. People are attracted to this natural byproduct of being “indie” which usually leads to something authentic and heartfelt that was created without an expectation of a large audience.
It was once considered taboo for bands to link their songs with a brand. Cries of “sell out” often went along with any placement of a licensed track in an ad. Now that everyone under the sun is downloading a band’s music for free and album sales are at an all time low, we have become much more forgiving. In fact, it has proven to be a win win for both sides of the equation. The brands get the credibility of having the band’s involvement and the band gets huge exposure, press and money from the sync. It is, along with live performance, one of the only places bands can still find money to scratch out a living.
This discussion of how bands and brands have changed their way of working together was recently explored in a great article in the New York Times, titled “Looking to a Sneaker for a Band’s Big Break”. The article tracked the evolution of the surf pop group, Best Coast, and delved into the ways bands are now willing to align themselves with brands beyond just licensing an existing track. For instance, bands will play shows with corporate sponsors, lend their images to billboards, release exclusive tracks through a brand’s website or even create an original track for use in a campaign. Agencies that create work for the brands now have many more creative options open to them, and often are looking for more than a pre-existing track to use in their spot.
Still, many people underestimate the role of a skilled music producer, or someone who understands the needs and sensibilities of both sides, in these artistic collaborations. Being an indie artist myself, I found learning how to talk about music as a concept and using it as a piece of the larger picture to be one of the biggest challenges when I started making music for advertising. Luckily, in the early days, we worked with patient agency creatives and producers who believed in us. Today, we’ve come full circle. With our music collective Black Iris and our singles label, White Iris, we’re fortunate enough to be able to offer that opportunity to other young bands (Best Coast, Fool’s Gold, Foreign Born) who are navigating these waters for the first time. It’s incredibly satisfying to know that by doing so, we’re helping them to keep doing what they love. The goal for any artist is to keep making art. In my opinion, there’s no difference between producing a great record with a band or creating an amazing spot for a brand.
Daron Hollowell is owner/executive producer of Black Iris Music.
