Pros and Cons of The Usage of Music in Promotional Content

An artist’s music is their everything, especially after they kick-off their start in the music business. Sometimes, once that artist presents their opening debut, it automatically becomes a hit. This would earn that rising star ultimate publicity, and most likely earn them contracts from corporations. Sometimes, however, these types of contracts aren’t a good thing, since these types of deals will lead artists away from what really matters. Achieving fans may become a goal when they enter into the music industry, but when an artist signs a contract with a corporation, this goal has a high chance of becoming unsuccessful. Despite this, signing with corporations, sometimes, can supply that artist with positive outcomes too. Signing with a corporation can be the start of to an artist’s business and it could bring that artist more publicity. Therefore, exactly how good is a contract from a corporation? It actually varies. Some corporation deals end with the stars gaining fans, and some stars losing fans. So, classmates, due to the information I’ve gathered, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a good and bad side to using artist’s music in advertising.

Applications (apps) like Youtube, Spotify, and Pandora are encircled around populations that listen to music. Apps like these guarantee fans a free way to listen to their favorite artist and are given unlimited amounts of times to indulge into an artist’s songs. So from a fan’s point of view, using apps to listening to music is amazing. However, from an artist’s point of view, apps aren’t a great way to make money. “A signed solo artist would need about 5,478 Itunes downloads of a song… just to make the U.S minimum wage”, says David McCandles, a data journalist studying the monthly income for artists (Carter, 2). McCandles isn’t wrong neither, but in fact, payments-per-stream of a song are at an all time low now for artists. Big time artists, including Emmy-award winning singer Taylor Swift, are starting to call attention to the problem. In 2014, Swift pulled all of her songs off of Spotify, claiming that “streaming services doesn’t apply well with her values” (Carter, 2). Since then, other stars such as Garth Brooks, AC/DC, and Bob Seger have joined Swift and took a stand against streaming services and advertisements.

Other artists, however, like Zoe Keating agrees with streaming services. She states that “Smaller artists are offered more of a chance once they are heard by a wider audience” and “Services like these should be viewed as a way for musicians to get their music out there” (Carter, 3). Keating is right about newer artists having a chance to become famous due to streaming services. Take Rae Sremmurd for example, his hit with Gucci Mane titled “Black Beatles” became a hit with the younger crowd, causing his song to stay number one on the top music boards for three weeks straight. Thanks to social media and ads that produced his song, Sremmurd’s rise to stardom became imminent.

In conclusion, any kind of advertisements may benefit or negatively effect that artist, depending on the type of advertisement that they’re taken upon. Many big-time artists hate the idea of producing their music in ads, while others are in favor of it. No matter what, advertisements can exceedingly help an artist build their career, or in fact hurt it.

Works Cited

1. Carter, E. (2017). The good and bad of using artist’s music in advertising. The Gardner News. Retrieved from https://www.thegardnernews.com/story/opinion/columns/2017/04/14/good-and-bad-of-using-artists-music-in-advertising/121266090/
2. McCandles, D. (2016). How much do musicians earn online? [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online-2015-remix/
3. Moore, R. (2018). The pros and cons of using popular music in your marketing. The Balance Small Business. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/using-popular-music-in-marketing-3859287
4. O'Hagan, S. (2019). The music industry must fight exploitation of artists by brands. The Guardian.
5. Ramsay, J. (2018). The pros and cons of music in advertising. Ad Age.
6. Reilly, K. (2018). Here’s why music copyright is so complicated. Fortune.
7. Sisario, B. (2021). Taylor Swift is rerecording her old albums. Here’s what she’s reclaiming. The New York Times.
8. Zollo, P. (2019). What does it mean when an artist’s music is used in a commercial? Billboard.