Music In Advertising

There are many ways to make a living in the music industry, but if one is both the performer and creator of the content one performes, those opportunities are exponentially improved. The revenue streams from which recording artists can generate an income can include recording royalties, endorsement deals, live performance money, merchandising and master recording fees. Within the publishing world the revenue can emanate from public performance royalties, transcription, mechanical licenses, and translation licenses, as well as printed music royalties.

For the purposes of this article I want to focus specifically on Synchronization licenses, as they pertain to advertising. In recent years songwriters have made a lot of money licensing their music for various platforms, including gaming, but in this article the focus will be on advertising. Over the years many mega deals have been struck to feature iconic songs in adverts, with advertisers keenly aware of the power of music and how it can harnessed to draw consumers to products. In early history the power of music was harnessed in a similar fashion by governments and religion to spread their message or propaganda.

Appealing to a customers sense of nostalgia is a very clever and subliminal way to get consumers to purchase one’s product. It is one of the strategies cleverly employed in Hip-Hop, through sampling, which resulted in the world domination of the genre in the late 1990s and a time honoured tradition in advertising. Some brands do not want to spend the big money to license well known songs for their promotional campaigns and that is when “sound alikes” are created. Yet other companies are willing to put their money with their mouths are, by paying exorbitant fees to purchase the sync licenses required to use these iconic songs and have been duly rewarded for their investments.

For the purposes of this article I’m going to focus on 5 mega music deals, which have resulted in the use of iconic songs in commercials and sometimes have even featured the stars of those songs themselves. Here we go…

“A Little Less Conversation” was originally recorded in 1968 and was included on Elvis’ 28th motion picture “Live A Little, Love A Little”. It was eventually released as part of a budget compilation album titled “Almost In Love” in 1970 and was, therefore, not a well known Presley song. In 2001 Nike executives in Holland were contemplating which song to use in an upcoming advertising campaign, which would coincide with the FIFA World Cup in 2002. The campaign was to be the company’s largest global campaign to date and the concept for the advertisement would feature the world’s most historically famous soccer players playing in a secret match.

In 1987 Nike was in the process of revamping their advertising, with the aim of attempting to become the No1 sports shoe manufacturer in the world, a distinction held by Reebok at the time. They wanted to use the Air Jordan’s, which had been launched a few years earlier in 1985, as the centrepiece of their campaign and the Beatles’ song “Revolution”. The Beatles were, however, not very interested in allowing their songs to be used in commercials, especially after “Help!” had been dismally used in Ford Lincoln-Mercury advertisement in 1985. But it was not up to them, as Michael Jackson had bought the rights in the song, along with 200 other Beatles’ tracks in 1985 for $47.5million. Michael Jackson agreed to grant permission for the use of the song and Capitol granted a license for the use of the master recording for a period of a year and a deal was struck for $500,000, shared between Michael and Capitol.

In 1989 Madonna was on the precipice of releasing her much anticipated fourth studio album, “Like A Prayer”. Her third album, “True Blue”, released in 1986, was her biggest selling studio album, having shipped over 25million units worldwide, spawning 3 No1 singles. Her star had been rising incrementally since the release of her debut album in 1983 and “Like A Prayer” was much anticipated, after a 3 year break between releases. Pepsi understood the value of co-opting the mega-star for their campaign and approached her with the idea of using the title single from her album in an Pepsi commercial.

All the hype and publicity paid off for the Queen of Pop. The song and album, released on the 3rd and 21st of March respectively, eventually peaked at No1 in 20 countries including the USA and U.K. The single shipped over 5million units and album 15million units worldwide. According to Rolling Stone Magazine it is considered one of the Top 500 songs of all time, with critics citing it as a seminal moment in Rock history. The whole thing was a major coup for Madonna, who was lauded for her business acumen.

As stated earlier, there are many ways to generate an income in the music business and music creators hold the keys to the kingdom, as whoever controls the content controls the business, “content is King”. Licensing and specifically sync license deals are becoming a greater reality in the music business, as illustrated above. Music creators are licensing songs for movies, adverts, games and websites, making these types of deals very lucrative. Although the above deals are an exception and not the rule, the reality is that with recording companies not playing the role they once did and the emergence of the DIY artist, these deals are becoming more prevalent.

As illustrated above the “pulling power” of famous artists and their content, can make a difference to big businesses’ bottom line. There is, therefore, great attraction, by big business to content and celebrity even years after the initial release of a piece of music. Furthermore, it is important to highlight these various streams of income as we delve deeper into the virtual music business and the industry’s “new normal”. Artists/creators are becoming more self-reliant, entrepreneurial and this is one of the ways they are generating money in the new industry. At the end of the day, although the business relies on creative output, it is a business after all, so these matters need to be considered and studied to ensure the livelihood of millions.

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