INDIES: SYNCH OR SWIM?
December 20, 2008
Indie Musicians See Mixed Returns In Ad Campaigns
CORTNEY HARDING
For most of the summer, Santi White, who records as Santogold, gazed down at the New York Billboard offices from a Converse ad hung high above Astor Place. Her image and her songs seemed to be inescapable—during the course of the last year, she provided the soundtrack to Bud Light Lime, Ford Flex, VO5 hair products, Nokia and Telus Wireless ads—in addition to her visual and musical role in the Converse campaign. Even TiVo users couldn't miss her; her songs appeared multiple times on shows like "Gossip Girl," "CSI: New York," "Entourage," "90210" and "Grey's Anatomy."
Santogold has licensed almost 75% of the tracks from her self-titled debut album and could achieve the Moby-like feat of licensing every song. She's a prime example of the new school of thought on synchs—namely, the more the better—and with sales of her 8-month-old album poised to cross 100,000 before the end of the year, she's a worthy poster-girl.
Santogold herself admits that she doesn't know how to calculate how much the synchs contributed to her sales, but adds that she's sure they helped. "I get a lot of MySpace messages from people who heard my music on TV shows," she says. "I've gotten lots of messages about the Bud Light Lime commercials, as well as the 'My Drive Thru' song we did for Converse. I've even gotten some messages from fans that were introduced to my music through videogames." The synchs have been her primary mode of exposure—she hasn't made much of a dent on commercial radio or MTV, although some high-profile collaborations with the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye West are getting noticed.
According to Cornerstone Promotion president Jon Cohen, a number of factors are helping Santogold. "She has more mainstream appeal," he says. "She also has the resources of her label, Downtown Records, who have lots of money and experience behind them. And she made excellent choices in terms of the brands she chose to work with."
But while Santogold's adventures in licensing seem to have paid off handsomely, many other bands haven't been so lucky. The Cool Kids, for example, have appeared in a Rhapsody ad and partnered with Mountain Dew on their singles label and have sold only 36,000 copies of the EP "Bake Sale," according to Nielsen SoundScan. And Chairlift, a band with a song in the granddaddy of all the commercials—the Apple iPod ad—has sold 108,000 copies of the single "Bruises" and 6,000 copies of its latest album, "Does You Inspire You," according to SoundScan.
Of course, bands are compensated for these synchs, at very least in publishing royalties, so to call any of these endeavors losses would be a stretch. But even though some bands dream of turning an appearance in a tampon commercial into a career, the real story of the great licensing race of 2008 is that while some float, many more will sink.
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