New Meaning to Commercial Music

Now that physical copies of music are no longer making money for artists or the companies that help pay for the creation of albums, everyone is searching for a new way to make a buck. Or even an old way that hasn't been fully exploited. The easiest of these "new" financial endeavors is endorsements. Athletes have been making millions of dollars from endorsements for ages, but musicians - at least so-called "authentic" or "real" musicians - saw using their name and image as a way to sell a non-music-related product as selling out, a phrase that doesn't have a consolidated definition that everyone agrees on.

Now things have changed. Endorsements are not just for Tiger Woods and whichever football player is hot right now. Madonna is endorsing shampoo. U2, among many others, endorsed iPods (at least music-related). The most interesting thing about musical endorsements is how they're now being used, not by artists with name recognition, but to create artists from scratch.

Last summer, "Umbrella" by Rihanna seemed to be everywhere because it was everywhere. It was on the radios, but even more so, it was on television in multiple advertisements. Rihanna showed up in print advertising for actual umbrellas and lip gloss. She became a household name because of the song, but partially became a recognizable face because of the companies that took a chance on a fairly unknown artist with a handful of well-known people behind her.

What I find most disturbing in this trend of endorsements - other than the new "celebrity scent" coming out every other week or Kevin Federline peddling insurance - is best demonstrated by Tag Records. You probably haven't heard of Tag Records, mostly because they just formed this past April, but you probably have heard of Tag body spray.

One would hope the only connection between the two was the common name, but alas, it's not. Jermaine Dupri, a well-respected and talented music producer, has created a label that is directly connected to... men's deodorant. Dupri says the idea makes sense because it will give the label access to a marketing budget far surpassing that of what they'd otherwise have. But doesn't that make his label pretty much a advertising company that specializes in music? I mean, the label's Myspace page only advertises the release of the labels... first advertisement, coming in July.

Somewhere in my head, there is an invisible line separating harmless endorsements that produce an additional revenue stream for budding or established artists, and creating an entire record company based on a symbiotic relationship with a company with no musical resources at all. I wouldn't call it "selling out," just a line that, once crossed, turns the final musical product into something interchangeable with a pair of sneakers or, in Mr. Dupri's label's case, a product that rids one of body odor. Not exactly something I want to think of when I'm listening to a new artist...