If you were in line for the Fergie show two Sundays ago at the House of Blues, you probably picked up on two things: the excitement of the club-casual crowd and the hum of corporate synergy. None of us had to pay money to get in–a few tickets had been given away to the general public in radio promotions, but the rest had gone to fans who bought Verizon-enabled Motorola phones, downloaded Fergie content through Verizon’s V Cast media marketplace, or won them in contests held by Candie’s and Kohl’s or at brick-and-mortar Verizon outlets.
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As the music industry struggles to adapt to the changes forced on it by file sharing and the Internet, big labels are becoming inhospitable places for all but the hugest stars. Album sales continue to decline, profits are more or less flat despite increases in single-song downloads and ringtone sales, and blogs that can leak new music with impunity are stealing the promotional thunder from commercial radio. The majors, feeling threatened, are shunting more and more of the financial risk of selling music onto the artists, shrinking advances so that bands run out of money before they see any royalties. Labels are taking fewer chances on up-and-comers, and they’re flat out dropping bands left and right–EMI’s recent merger of Virgin and Capitol, for instance, was followed by a purge of both their rosters.
It’s hard to say what counts as “selling out” these days, even for the dedicated punks and hip-hop heads most likely to deploy the phrase. Corporations want the credibility that comes with the music they’re co-opting, so an artist doesn’t have to tidy up to win their patronage. And letting somebody pay you for the use of music you would’ve made anyway is hardly the taboo it once was, in part because such deals have become so ubiquitous. Musicians get exposure and buy real estate, and when companies sponsor shows, fans benefit too, getting free tickets, downloads, and merch, along with other perks. The music industry might end up rescued by corporations that make everything but music.
And the corporations–what do they get out of the deal? Well, less than a week after Fergie, I saw the Walkmen play Taste of Randolph Street. They’re one of my favorite bands going, and almost every one of their songs is tied in my mind to a certain time and place, the way all my favorite songs are. But when the piano riff that opens “We’ve Been Had” started up, all I could think of was the Saturn commercial I heard it in back in 2003.
