There’s an interesting article in today’s Washington Post about the “sell-out” stigma once attached to artists who offered their songs to TV shows, movies and commercials and how it appears to lack relevance in the iPod age…

The result is that corporate music buyers are changing the economics of being an independent musician. The once-standard dream of a record deal and radio play is giving way to the reality of restaurants, retailers and automakers scouring the industry for little-known music that can lend mood and edge to marketing campaigns… Selling music to advertisers used to be taboo among many sellout-conscious artists, but today “these commercial branding opportunities are being viewed much more positively,” he said.

The article quotes Minneapolis’ own Bob Mould (Husker Du) about selling rights to a song used in O.C. episodes. It goes on to cite ESL Music, who get 40% of their revenue from licensing to shows like “Sex and the City” and “The West Wing” and in retail chains such as Starbucks and Banana Republic.

Meanwhile Jack White is penning the new them song for Coke, The Rolling Stones are in American Express commercials, Coldplay is selling ringtones during CSI, Lexus is sponsoring Paul McCartney’s tour, the Jagermeister Music Tour features Disturbed, Toyota sponsors the Today Show’s concert series. Even lower profile acts such as the Kings of Leon and Secret Machines have a corporate sponsor, JBL.

I don’t know. It sure still feels like selling out. I remember my fourth time seeing Incubus (way back when they still rocked), and they were playing on “The Honda Civic Stage” at the US Cellular Center (in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) within their own headlining tour. So it was their own traveling stage in smaller venues, but it was branded. I wanted to leave right then. Nowadays, it seems only a few major acts reject corporate sponsors: Pearl Jam, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Neil Young and Springsteen.

So the article doesn’t mention how lesser artists give free downloads direct from the artist on their own Web sites or MySpace or purposely upload tunes via Limewire or Soulseek and how that translates to enhanced recognition and sales.

Anymore, you don’t have to get shelved at Sam Goody or have a hit cover song to get popular, but I’m not convinced that selling your soul to corporate America will help you sell albums.

complete article here