Recently I noticed a few articles about indie songs being licensed for commercials.

Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses defends licensing of “Funeral” to Walmart and Ford:

“I did allow Wal-Mart to use a song for a new website they created and have also given permission to Ford Motor Company to license a song from our new album. Because some people see Wal-Mart as a huge, evil corporation, they seem to be especially bummed about this license and see us as posers and/or corporate whores as a result.

“I’d like to just state for the record that we let all kinds of folks use our songs in all kinds of mediums - TV, films, school projects, etc… My personal stance is that once that music is recorded and released to the world then I don’t really care where it goes. “The Funeral” has been licensed to death (ha, wretch) at this point and if somebody wants to throw down some duckets for it, then feel free. It also beats the hell out of stealing batteries from Wal-Mart to sell them back for 8 bucks.

“As for Ford: I drive a 1986 F-150 that still runs great. Maybe I’ll get the a/c fixed with the cash they kicked down. I’m also stoked that people will hear our song on TV and we might pick up some new listeners in the process. I see no negative.

“That’s our reasoning and I’m okay with it. I hope fans of the band are, too.

“We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film “The Funeral,” so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it.

The Telegraph
asked Sam Beam of Iron & Wine:

“People ask about the commercials a lot,” says Beam. “I don’t really get it. It’s not like my songs are being used in army recruitment commercials. If I had the luxury of not having to license my music, I probably wouldn’t, but I have four daughters and four sets of education to pay for.”

It seems we’ve come a long way since bands refused to license T-shirts even. For a few years it seemed like there was a quiet acknowledgment of selling songs to commercials to help support their music with one of the first instances I remember being the Apples in Stereo back in 2001, but this seems to be a new attitude, one by the bands that says they have a right to license songs and that fans ought to agree.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 10:55 pm Posted by adrian in blogs, industry. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.