Robert Schneider, singer/songwriter for indie cult heroes The Apples in Stereo, has been working in advertising for close to 10 years. No, it's not his day job - he's not a copywriter for a New York agency or a staff composer at a music house. Rather, his music has been a top pick for agencies and clients looking to inject a dose of sunshiny pop into their campaigns.

First, it was by licensing The Apples in Stereo tracks; in 1999, Y&R used "Strawberryfire" in a Sony spot, kicking off the band's relationship with commercials. From there, a stream of requests ensued; Apples tracks have been used in spots for Sunkist, Target, Kohl's, and Dodge, among others. But recently, Schneider has been working more closely with the agencies and the brands by composing commissioned pieces for campaigns. For an artist with a fondness for Tin Pan Alley songwriters like Carmichael and Gershwin (the Apples even have a song called "Tin Pan Alley"), where composers were hired to crank out the pop music of the day, the commissioned commercial work is close in spirit.

"Being in an indie rock band, trying to write a radio hit is a pointless endeavor," he says over the phone from New York. "So it's nice for me to get a chance to write these sorts of songs - I can try to make them as catchy and poppy as possible."

Catchy and poppy - two requisites for Top 10 singles, and often times for commercial tracks as well. For the recording artist that wants to explore the possibilities of working directly with a brand or its agency, and for the agency or brand that wants to cash in on the creativity and cred of a hip artist or band, the commission model can yield great results, says Ten Music owner Sarah Gavigan.

Working with DDB on a campaign geared at teens for the skin care product Clean & Clear, Ten Music opted to distribute a brief for the spots amongst bands it represents on its roster to see what sort of demos would come back. Gavigan says she was surprised by the results.

"Typically, when we do this sort of work, some of the submissions are really good," she says. "But with some of them, the artists don't really respond very well to the 'working on demand' type of environment. In this case, it was really difficult to choose."

In the end, an effervescent blast of sunny indie pop called "Stand Up" by Cookie Duster won out. "The client wound up ultimately being really happy because the track feels like something that they bought or licensed that has a natural connection to the brand," Gavigan says. Indeed, Anomaly and Converse have hooked up three artists - Pharrell Williams, Santogold and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas - to create a unique track for a campaign celebrating both Converse's 100th anniversary and the natural connection those artists, and other independent thinkers of a certain demographic, have with the shoemaker.

Arnold Worldwide creative director Chris Carl is also working in this capacity with numerous Scandinavian bands for Volvo's new campaign. A recent spot for the C70 features "I Adore You", a track specifically composed for the spot by Swedish artist Erik Mattiason, aka Melpo Mene. When the spot hit the airwaves and YouTube, reaction to the track was immediately positive from viewers, a response that mirrored that of the client, says Carl.

"We've found that if we ask enough artists to do something, one of them will be right without too much back-and-forth," says Carl. "We try to give them the freedom to be themselves and do what they do." For the Volvo work, artists were given a brief hinging on the campaign's tagline, "Life Is Better Lived Together". It's a sentiment that lends itself well to the sweet Scandinavian pop that Carl was hunting for. "It's a matter of finding if the aesthetic is right for Volvo," he says.

It's also a matter of finding recording artists and bands that can work well within a commissioned or work-for-hire music model. "It's a fine line, because the DNA of something that was created by the artist on his own time is very different than the DNA of a work-for-hire," says Gavigan.

Eric Korte, music director at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, agrees. He says that while the agency has experimented with commissioning tracks from recording acts, "we haven't usually followed that path through all the way to the end." He cites the creative risk inherent in asking an artist used to expressing him or herself without the inherent parameters of a commercial project, as well as the sheer mechanics of the process.

"If you're working with a music company, you can always just move on and do another round of demos," he says. "But if you're working with an artist, you're assuming they're putting that out for you because that's what they want to represent themselves with, and if it's not right, it creates a difficult situation for everybody." Korte says the current trend towards having artists record covers of existing tracks harnesses the creativity of the artist and also gives the client a safer bet musically.

Still, there are artists that want to rise to the challenge. Schneider, who says he has a "'new song jukebox' playing in my head every day", once had an assignment to turn around a track in 24 hours. In that span of time, he gave the client three to choose from.

From a business perspective, commissioning recording artists to create branded tracks can also be appealing. Gavigan says that, as was the case with the Clean & Clear project, a work-for-hire buyout deal gives the agency and client latitude to do what it wants with the track, an advantage for increasingly integrated campaigns.

"When a track can travel from a spot to a website to a banner to a download, this is a much more affordable option for agencies and clients," she says. "The licensing rights that are required to do all of those things can be pretty hefty, whereas in this case, you can get all of those elements and the client owns it outright."

By contrast, Carl says the Volvo deal essentially treats the commissioned songs as licensed tracks. "Basically, the song is theirs. We pay for the rights to use it in our advertising, and we might buy it out for a year, but the song is theirs to promote however they want and do what they want with it." It's an attractive proposition for artists that may be reticent to license pre-existing tracks and potentially alienate part of their fanbases.

For Schneider, who's worked both sides of the fence, he relishes the opportunity to release his inner Tin Pan Alley songsmith and write on demand. "It's like, 'Oh, now I have to write a song about having fun in a new pair of shoes!'" he laughs. "To me, that's a legitimate song topic. Fun in the sun? I'd write a song about that anyway."

Ten Music http://www.tenmusic.tv
Arnold http://www.arnoldworldwide.com
DDB http://www.ddb.com
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York http://www.saatchiny.com
The Apples in Stereo http://www.applesinstereo.com