As the traditional avenues for consuming music become obsolete, agencies are increasingly asking music houses to extend their jingles into full-length singles; a request spurred on by public demand, cheap digital distribution and the lure of more ears for their message.

It's fitting that the man who epitomizes the narrative arc in the radically changing relationship between brands and music is Paul McCartney, and all the more so that the arc started 20 years ago with the aptly-named Beatles tune, "Revolution". In a landmark moment, Nike and Capitol Records signed a deal in 1987 to license the song for an ad: one of the very first agreements of its kind.

It caused an uproar. Wieden+Kennedy founder David Kennedy said in a recent talk that, at the time, he felt the use of the iconic song in an ad was "sacrilege". The Beatles' company Apple Corps duly sued Nike and Capitol, the song's license holders, forcing Nike to drop the song from the ad. It set a precedent that was to change ad music forever. Fast forward to May 2007 and McCartney is in the headlines again for ditching EMI to release his new album on Starbucks' record label, Hear Music.

McCartney's volte face is emblematic of the seismic changes in the music industry's attitude toward brands and how those brands continue to look for better ways to exploit music. One increasingly common approach has been maximizing ad music's reach by turning a 30-second jingle into a full-length single.

"It's really wild what it's turned into," says Jack Bradley, executive producer of Santa Monica-based music house Singing Serpent. "On our last reel five out of nine spots got serious interest [from agencies looking to extend them] because of people saying, 'Who was the artist you licensed?' And when they found out it was a music house they asked, 'Where's the full track? I love that song'."

"It presents a huge opportunity," adds Jon Allen, editor of ad music search website Adtunes. "Visitors to the Adtunes site make posts along the lines of, 'I will buy this song if they can just tell me where I can get it'. That kind of, 'Here's me waving my money asking to buy this music' enthusiasm from a consumer about a song created for a television commercial was unheard of a few years ago. I'm honestly surprised more companies are not taking advantage of this captive market when it presents itself."

The biggest facilitator of such opportunity has been the Internet. A valuable information and feedback tool for consumers, it not only means Joe Public can find out what "that tune" is at the click of a mouse, but for the first time they can easily inform brands and agencies that they like it.

Digital advances have also slashed costs. With consumers increasingly buying music digitally, expensive and time-consuming physical production, distribution and marketing is no longer necessary. Ad music, already part of an agency's budget, is a cheap but potentially potent extra bang for the client's buck. A tune can be extended and uploaded as a downloadable MP3 within a matter of weeks for minimal outlay.

Ironically, what makes this such an attractive proposition is making record company executives break out in a cold sweat. "For the same reason that record companies are getting freaked out by how much music is getting spread around like wildfire, clients are excited by that, because if they can put out a great piece of music, it might go to 30 or 40,000 people in a day," explains Bradley.

A TURNING POINT
Leading the way are innovators like New York-based Human. The music house recently signed a ground-breaking 50/50 partnership deal with Coca-Cola after an original track for Sprite "Pool", made for the Asian market, generated huge online interest. Coca-Cola responded by asking Human to create a full-length version, "Falling Away", which it will promote in its small but massively effective retail space: its cans and point of sale. In 220 markets, Coke will drive consumers to a website where they can download the song.

Human president Marc Altshuler sees it as a turning point, a new era of what he calls branded content music. He sees more brands becoming original music content providers and outlets in their own right rather than piggybacking on the success of an established band. "What you're doing is taking a sonic identifier - now it's a song - and creating your own equity. Any marketer is going to tell you that their number one goal is to stop buying media for their advertising," he says. "Building a hit song is one way to do it."

"It furthers the brand experience," explains DDB, San Francisco chief creative officer Lisa Bennett. After a wave of requests from the public, her agency is working on a strategy to make music from a number of Clorox commercials, made by Singing Serpent and Amber Music, available as free downloadable MP3s. It's part, she says, of the brand engaging with the public and building a relationship that is beyond the hard sell. "Clorox is saying to the consumer, 'If you like this music, then we'll make it available to you'."

Bradley believes music can change consumer attitudes to a brand. "When I think of Clorox, I think of people who need to clean their bathrooms, but yet they're speaking to everybody by putting out these really cool pieces of music. For the savvy client, in a world where they're looking for something to break them out of the standard branding, this says they're cool, they're interesting."

"I think it makes brands look a little more forward-thinking to be doing stuff like that and not be confined to just the 30- or 60-second space," agrees Fallon, Minneapolis GCD Brian Tierney, citing the agency's Garmin spot, which aired during this year's Super Bowl. Fallon took the music from the original ad and extended it to a full-length song and downloadable music video. "They're making a huge investment for the 30 seconds of airtime, so anything we could do to give them more eyes and ears they were very receptive to," he says.

Eve Kornblum, SVP, executive producer for New York-based agency Deutsch contends that "brands are looking to every sensory touch point to further define themselves. Music provides a huge branding opportunity as it offers many levels of dissemination. It can also provide additional venues for profit if planned correctly."

After getting public requests for full-lengths of the Singing Serpent music in their spots for hotel chain Westin, Deutsch used its existing relationship with online music retailer eMusic to offer them as free downloads. The move was, Kornblum says, a creative, logical and simple extension of the brand's ethos and experiential campaign, targeting all the senses.

BRANDS AS LABELS
Labels everywhere are scrambling to find other ways to generate revenue lost from plummeting sales. One very lucrative option is licensing for ads, TV and film, which generates huge - and importantly, free - marketing for a band to push singles and album sales. That option has seen licensing costs plummet and artists put aside any high-minded notions about selling out. The result? More high-quality licensed tracks in ads, which leaves music houses not just competing with each other for business but also with hugely famous bands, which in turn leads to a higher creative bar for jingles as brands search for "The Song" to give them identity.

In response to agencies looking for culturally resonant music indistinguishable from non-ad music, music houses like Mophonics have started to act in many cases more like digital labels, with acts waiting in the wings for a brand partnership.

Brands' physical space is a potent marketing and distribution tool. McCartney's move may seem craven to music purists but label executives are probably kicking themselves. Starbucks has 13,000 branches in the US alone, with a staggering 45 million people going through their doors every day. "Brands are going to become the new labels," states Mophonics CEO Michael Frick, "because they'll provide the distribution means in the physical world."

Canadian clothing retailer Smart Set responded to the public clamor for their jingle from music house Apollo Studio by releasing it as an EP available in their stores. It was a hit, all 22,000 copies sold out within three weeks of release at $6 a pop, and not a distribution deal in sight. "The client was pushing the 'lifestyle' button pretty hard in their ads and the record was just an extension of that," says Apollo founder Paul Macot.

GETTING IN ON THE ACT
Unfortunately, most agencies are still acting retroactively rather than strategically.

"We would dearly love to work more closely with brands and agencies at a much earlier stage in the process," sighs Finger Music EP John Murrell, echoing many in the industry. But the potential rewards for agencies that do think ahead are hugely tantalizing. Mophonics recently worked on Axe's worldwide Bomchickawahwah campaign (see pg. 62). The brief was to create a song (and music video) that would propel the B-word into the pop culture lexicon. Frick says it's the first time he's been commissioned to produce an original full-length song from the outset. "Bomchickawahwah" will be available on the Axe website as an MP3 and video download. But BBH, New York and Mophonics' ambitions are bigger.

The Bryan Buckley-directed video will also air unbranded on MTV's Hollyhood. "I put a proposal in front of them to release this on vinyl instead of just MP3s because for $1,800 I can produce 1,000 units of vinyl and they can hand them out to kids outside clubs in Ibiza, to take home and play," says Frick.

Richard Firstein, founder of BBH's music partner and label, Leap, ultimately sees brands like Axe and Coca-Cola becoming creators, publishers and portals for content. "My forecast is that consumers will look to brands as the channel from which they will access music and entertainment rather than the traditional channels."

Saatchi & Saatchi's branded content wing GUM has already fulfilled Firstein's prediction. They created a brand-owned property, an urban girl group named Honeyshot, which released a grime-tinged electro track to radio stations in May. It flopped, savaged by the music press and scorned by the industry and listeners alike who felt duped by an explicitly ad-funded act. But it set a huge precedent, one that may in the long term come to represent a movement as important as The Beatles' "Revolution".

If that seems unlikely, in light of McCartney's current stance, consider what the Fab Four's lawyer said back in 1987 about the use of "Revolution" in the Nike spot: "The Beatles' position is that they don't sing jingles to peddle sneakers, beer, pantyhose, or anything else." Coffee, anyone?

Adtunes http://www.adtunes.com
Apollo Studios http://www.studioapollo.com
BBH, New York http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com
DDB, San Francisco http://www.ddb-sf.com
Deutsch http://www.deutschinc.com
Finger Music http://www.fingermusic.com
Human http://www.humanworldwide.com
Leap Music http://www.leapmusic.com
Mophonics http://www.mophonics.com
Singing Serpent http://www.singingserpent.com