About bands4brands

bands4brands is an open community, network and marketplace for musicians, brands, agencies and scholars who are interested in brand artist partnerships. This service is brought to you by pop.sponsoring and is free of charge.

Background

For several years, an exciting constellation has developed in the advertising and music industry, both of which are undergoing a fundamental paradigm shifts. Most affected is the music industry, where after a short-lived boom after the launch of the compact disc in 1983 a serious crisis has set in following the total digitalization of the music supply. This concerns mainly the sound carrier market, which is still at the hub of the music industry. In the centre of this paradigm shift in the music industry are new income-creating potentials for artists and the discourse on future function and relevance of music businesses. While proponents of the distribution perspective cling to the current model of market cultivation of the music industry and call for a rapid adaptation for the digital music market, the proponents of the content perspective question all traditional process of the music industry. The latter have recognized the extent of change and are developing concepts for new sources of revenue.

The disintegration of the dogmatic separation between principal and ancillary rights in music utilization is possibly a significant step towards new concepts in music marketing. Essentially, principal rights of music utilization include marketing of rights of use of composition and production of music. To date, these are observed mainly by music labels, publishers and collecting companies. All other rights of use are termed ancillary rights and belong directly to the artist or his/her management. These primarily include live performances and use of artist images in merchandising/licensing, advertising contracts and other forms of cooperation with brands.

While up to now, principal rights of music utilization are at the fore of commercial use, the economic focus is increasingly shifting towards the commercialization of ancillary rights. Already, the majority of revenue in the music market is not generated from the sale of music per se, but from the commercialization of the relevant ancillary rights. Most attractive for the artist is the commercialization of his/her image as it requires not too much additional work and expense. Thus, a distinct change can be observed in the attitude towards the advertising industry.

By now, cooperation with brand producers, i.e. brand artist partnership, has become a constant factor in the marketing of a pop star. The advertising industry, just as the music industry, albeit not quite as dramatically, is also experiencing a period of change. The reasons are mainly the increasing information overload and consumers with marketing experience, who respond to advertising far more knowingly and deliberate. Here also, the effects of digitalization can be noted which offer increasing opportunities to avoid advertising (e.g. through video on demand, pay TV, HDD recorder, TV commercial filter etc.) and for individual consuming (e.g. via youtube.com). While above-the-line advertising continues to claim most of the communication budget, a trend towards below-the-line advertising is becoming apparent. The separation between above- and below-the-line is increasingly discarded by advertisers. Instead, individual advertising features are linked and integrated in holistic communication strategies.