As a follow-up to the interview we did for this ABC News article -- Ad Music Brings in Big Exposure for Artists -- about TV commercials as a venue for new music artists like Yael Naim and Sara Bareilles:

"It's completely taken over as a first-hear venue for new artists," said Jon C. Allen, co-owner of AdTunes.com, a blog for music fans who are seeking out the names and titles of songs they hear on commercials.

Ad Tunes was born five years ago in the wake of a memorable Mitsubishi Eclipse ad, but Allen says music junkies continue to visit his site as more ads introduce fresh acts to the mainstream.

"When was the last time you heard new music on FM radio or MTV?" Allen asked. "That doesn't really happen anymore."

To expand on our point about MTV and new music: viewers do not tune into the channel to hear new music in videos since the network devotes little airtime to music videos. Those videos as a source of new music have been replaced by songs appearing within the soundtracks of MTV shows. Labels are no longer fighting to get their artists latest video onto the network -- they are devoting energy to getting songs into MTV reality shows. For example, in the new season of The Hills, the network runs captions with the name of the song and artist you are currently hearing -- similar to what was used in music videos. This type of exposure on The Hills soundtrack backing Lauren Conrad and the gang means much more to an artist's career than having their music video play at 3am. MTV has even embraced the idea of music in commercials through their own MTV Artist of the Week (recently featuring French-pop singer Yelle), which features new artists performing in the MTV commercial "bumpers" running over the credits between shows.

Yael Naim Atlantic Yael Naim Amazon Music Price:

Little Voice Epic Sara Bareilles Amazon Music Price:

The NFL Super Bowl XLII (also known as "The Big Game") will kick-off this Sunday, which also means advertisers will be blowing out their ad budgets on Super Bowl commercials during the game on Fox.

This year's Superbowl ads promise to be "gentle and sweet", as opposed to TV commercials shown last year, which were labeled "crass and callous". The big spending (a record $2.7 million for 30 seconds) for spots during the broadcast also mean big risk to the bottom line for some businesses involved. Companies running spots during the game will include Pepsi (including one featuring Justin Timberlake), FedEx, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Victoria's Secret. You can also look for movie studios promoting film releases (including Semi-Pro and Iron Man) during the football game.

If you can't wait until the game on Sunday, Adland is posting plenty of "spoilers" about the ads, including clips from some of the 2008 Super Bowl commercials.

Visit these sites to see all of the Superbowl TV commericals online during and after the game: AOL, YouTube

Adtunes.com presents the Top Ad Music of 2007. Here is a selection of some the most memorable music trends in advertising from the past year.


10. Music at Retail
If 2006 was the year of music in cellphone commercials, then 2007 would be the year of ad music for clothing retailers. Big store chains have made use of popular music in TV commercials before, but this year saw a sharp increase. There was a time when you could only count on Gap commercials for catchy songs. Now every major retail company follows the song-centric TV commercial model: Old Navy, Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Target, and even Wal-Mart have all featured music in TV spots. The trend was so strong this year that we saw what we believe to be a first: Two competing retailers ran TV commercials at the same time using music from the same band. This "double-vending" honor goes to the music duo The Weepies, who were featured in holiday commercials for JCPenney using the song "All That I Want" (iTunes) and Old Navy with remixed versions of "Stars" (iTunes). We have no idea why these two companies would allow this to happen, but there is probably a music licensing rep at Nettwerk Records smiling.

9. This is Sparta!
It's hard to forget King Leonidas and those sweaty Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in the 300 movie trailer. The song from the stylized film trailer is "Just Like You Imagined" (iTunes) courtesy of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. Not limited to movie trailers, Reznor's music appears in a wide range of outlets -- everything from the video game Quake to Fox News.

8. Diamonds Are Forever
For over a year, readers have been "discussing" the Cat Power cover of "How Can I Tell You" in the DeBeer's diamond commercial. Some poor souls refuse to believe it is Cat Power singing -- often crediting Regina Spektor instead. It is certainly easy to confuse hipster female vocalists, but when Power's own label confirms she is singing in the ad, what is left to debate? This year DeBeers has a new "A Diamond is Forever" commercial featuring Landon Pigg and his song "Falling in Love at the Coffee Shop". Will the public still be talking about his diamond commercial a year from now? A victim of the Cat Spektor Effect?

7. Beatlemania
It seems like ages ago when Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono disagreed about Nike using the song "Revolution" by The Beatles in a sneaker commercial. Now the two seem to be singing the same (licensing) tune: This past year Ono allowed the song "Real Love" (iTunes) by John Lennon to be used for a JCPenney commercial and McCartney said "Let 'Em In" (iTunes) to Fidelity. The ad music didn't stop with post-Beatles Lennon and McCartney. A cover of The Beatles "Hello, Goodbye" by Sophia Shorai was featured as part of Target's "Goodbuy" ad campaign. "Hello, Goodbye" was also covered by the band Son Volt for an ESPN commercial featuring David Beckham. Beatles music seems to be everywhere, including the stage and screen.

6. Old Punks
It's official: Punk rock is dead. The Buzzcocks lent their song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" (iTunes) for an AARP commercial. A TV ad about birthday parties for the (formerly known as) American Association of Retired Persons seems to be an odd place to hear a pioneering band of the punk scene. "It is a bit ironic," according to Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle. The commercial is part of the AARP's campaign to re-brand the organization as more than a group for senior citizens. "There is a lingering perception that AARP is a retiree organization," said AARP chief brand director Emilio Pardo.

5. Bear Attack
While there are plenty contenders (see our number one pick) for this year's Overseer Overexposed Award, the honor goes to the Swedish band Teddybears. The group is long overdue for a mention on our list -- is there anyone that has not heard the song "Cobrastyle" (iTunes) in a commercial, TV show, or movie during the past three years? The song continues to be an ad music supervisor staple since it first appeared on the band's 2005 album Fresh. More recently, the ubiquitous song has been heard in the NBC series Chuck and The Black Donnellys. It has also appeared in commercials for the TV series Bones and for the films Bee Movie and Harold and Kumar 2. Even an ad featuring firemen responding to a "hot girl" wearing Secret deodorant was given the Cobrastyle touch. You might have also heard the song at a football game. Other songs by the band have appeared in recent episodes of The Bionic Woman and Life.

4. Personal Appearances
Music artists have been spending a lot of time in television commercials lately. The top pitchwoman of the year would be pop star Beyoncé. She would like you to use an American Express credit card when you call on your Samsung cellphone to upgrade DirecTV to HD while wearing Emporio Armani Diamonds perfume and L'Oreal makeup. We found out Gwen Stefani is being followed by floating pictures from a HP printer -- probably drawn to her scent of "L" perfume. Fergie gets her Candie's at Kohl's. Guitarist Slash pops up to play the video game Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Diane Krall, John Legend, and Elvis Costello discuss music while sitting in a Lexus. And for some reason, a bunny suit wearing John Mayer stalks Alicia Keys for MTV. Ad appearances aren't limited to well-known artists: Indie band Mates of State can be seen performing on-stage in an AT&T commercial.

3. Ends of the Earth
When the Discovery Channel began running commercials for the 11 part miniseries Planet Earth, several viewers took notice of the symphonic music in the ad, which led to an effort to identify the song. The score was eventually found to be a stock music track by APM Music, a production music company. Normally the search would end there. Production music companies do not release their licensed tracks to consumers, as their market is for radio, film, and television producers. But in the case of Planet Earth, consumer demand won out: APM Music took the unusual step of releasing the Planet Earth theme song to the public. "The Time Has Come (theme to Planet Earth)" by Tobias Marberger and Gabriel Shadid is available to download from iTunes. With increased consumer demand (and a little help from music sites like Adtunes), more companies in the advertising industry are waking up to the realization that there is an untapped market for their music.

2. Full Circle
As we mentioned before, this is the year of the retailer when it comes to TV commercial music. Another memorable case in point: The JCPenney Mother's Day commercial called "The Walk". Created by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the spot features a mother and daughter walking hand in hand as the daughter grows up. The cover song is "Only You" performed by Joshua Radin, originally by the group Yaz. The version of the song used in the JCPenney ad is a live track by Radin offered exclusively by iTunes as part of a Live Session EP. This effort to tap emotions via advertising is part of JCPenney's "Every day matters" campaign. It is hard to argue with the results when the right commercial with the right song can bring on the tears.

1. Bitter:Sweet Symphony
We could have easily given the Overseer Overexposed Award to the band Bitter:Sweet. Instead they earned the top spot on this year's list. Anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy and caught ads for the show is more than familiar with the song "Dirty Laundry" (iTunes), which appeared in countless promos across the ABC network. Perhaps you caught "Dirty Laundry" in the recent Victoria's Secret Pajama commercial. Or maybe you heard the band pre-loaded on your new Zune MP3 player that Santa left you. Although The Mating Game album was released in 2006, the band continues to make appearances in soundtracks, trailers and TV commercials, which you can track on their MySpace blog. Are these frequent appearances a case of music licensing "pulling a Moby" or more about survival? "This is truly the new radio for bands these days and we feel very lucky to be part of it. When we wrote these songs, the only thing we cared about was making music that WE actually wanted to listen to and we never thought about how other people would relate to it let alone advertisers." Regardless of where you first heard them, singer Shana Halligan and producer Kiran Shahani mix the right cocktail of trip-hop and jazz hooks for an infectious cinematic sound. Some may prefer the much higher profile Feist for their female indie-pop vocals in TV commercials fix, but we believe Bitter:Sweet deserves recognition as well.

Exclusive download offer of "Dirty Laundry" by Bitter:Sweet

Download the iTunes iMix of the Top Ad Music of 2007

The Mating Game Quango Bitter:Sweet Amazon Music Price:

The 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show returned to the airwaves courtesy of CBS. As with previous shows, we have a compiled a listing of music used in this year's Victoria's Secret Show.

A better name for the show would have been the 2007 Heidi Klum Fashion Show, since the supermodel and Project Runway host dominated most of the special. We see Heidi waking up and training. We see Heidi and her kids. We see Heidi hosting the show. We see a Heidi retrospective. We see Heidi on the runway. We see Heidi interrupting the "Pink" modeling contest. We see Heidi talking to the Spice Girls. We see Heidi singing with her husband Seal. There were a few other Victoria's Secret models, but one thought to comment about Heidi when interviewed backstage.

Although, the Victoria's Secret special was hyped as a showcase for the Spice Girls reunion (the Victoria's Secret web site features a Spice Girls Greatest Hits album offer), the CBS broadcast only featured one song from the group, despite the girls lip-syncing through two songs during the taping of the special last month. Perhaps their second performance had to be cut to allow more time to feature Heidi Klum.

The Victoria's Secret special once again featured tracks produced by "Musical Designer" Jeremy Healy. This year's VS music soundtrack seem to feature less "remixes" by Healy than in past shows. Here is a list of songs appearing in the 2007 Victoria's Secret Show. This music list may be updated/changed:

"Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)" by Bill Conti
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Let Me Think About It" by Ida Corr vs. Fedde le Grand
Get it at Amazon.

"Perfect (Exceeder) [Club Mix]" by Mason & Princess Superstar
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"I Got It from My Mama" by will.i.am (performance)
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Touch Me" by Cass Fox
Get it at Amazon.

"Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Doing It Right" by The Go! Team
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"The Girls" by Calvin Harris
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Get Free" by The Vines
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Wedding Day" by Seal (with Heidi Klum) (performance)
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Who's That Girl (Extended Mix)" by Eurythmics
Get it at iTunes.

"Stop the Rock" by Apollo 440
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Stop" by Spice Girls (performance)
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

"Amazing (Thin White Duke Edit)" by Seal (performance)
Get it at Amazon and iTunes.

If anyone would like to discuss music used in the special (and help identify remixes), visit our the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show thread in our forums.

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System Warner Brothers/Elektra/Atlantic Seal Amazon Music Price:

Spiceworld Virgin Records Us Spice Girls Amazon Music Price:

The community weblog MetaFilter featured a post detailing a Washington Post article titled How to Calculate Musical Sellouts with an accompanying graphic of a "mathematical formula" called The Moby Quotient:

The Moby Quotient, generated by the formula below, determines the degree to which artists besmirch their reputations when they lend their music to hawk products or companies. (The name salutes the techno artist Moby, who took the practice to new extremes with his 1999 album "Play." The Moby Quotient is designated by the Greek letter mu.)

This Washington Post article (by author Bill Wyman) is the latest in a long line of articles recycling the notion that popular music used in advertising equates artistic sellout. The theory being that a musician cannot profit from their own work via music licensing and maintain artistic integrity. The Wyman piece repackages this view with a snarky mathematical infographic that seems more suited for USA Today rather than the Washington Post.

When Wyman mentions this trend in relation to artist Moby, he frames it as a modern cautionary tale:

Our one hope is that what greed created, greed may eventually eliminate -- in other words, that younger artists will view Moby's career as a cautionary tale. The jut-jawed vegan still makes a good living touring and doing film soundtracks and the like. But it's also true that commercially and artistically, his recorded work since "Play" has been on a downward spiral. Let the sellouts beware.

The Post article would have you believe that a benevolent music industry has been soiled in recent years by television commercial producers and a bald electronica artist only out to make a buck. Musicians working with Madison Avenue is as old as the music industry itself. Step back in time and read about it from over 5 years ago.

...and over 10 years ago.

...and over 20 years ago.

...and over 30 years ago.

...and over 40 years ago.

...and over 50 years ago.

Is Moby any more of a sell-out than Cole Porter? When a music critic rails against popular music in advertising they are ignoring a fact that is currently decimating the music industry: People do not listen to music the same way they did 10 years ago. They do not tune into FM radio, watch a video on MTV, or buy a CD from Tower Records. Since traditional outlets for music are quickly dying away, it is no wonder that more popular music appears in TV commercials.

Play V2 Moby Amazon Music Price:

The new Dell commercial called "Engine" shows a group of women in black and white building an engine for the new Dell XPS notebook computer. The music for the spot is a distinctive 80s sound, like something from the band Devo. In fact, it is Devo. The track, called "Watch Us Work It" (via eMusic), is the first new release from the band in 17 years.

The commercial featuring the new Devo song is part of Dell's "Yours is Here" campaign. The Devo track was recorded at band member Mark Mothersbaugh's Mutato Muzika production studio. Mothersbaugh has made a career in recent years of recording music for commercials and soundtracks. The band also promises a full-length video for the new song.

Watch Us Work It iTunes Devo Price: $0.99

In what they are calling "an advertising first", car maker VW has licensed the brand new album Sky Blue Sky (iTunes) by the alternative rock band Wilco for use in their new Volkswagon TV commercial ad campaign. According to VW: "This is the first time anyone has ever used one album as a soundtrack for an entire TV campaign." Although it's not exactly clear how many different Wilco songs will be used in upcoming VW spots, roughly half of the new album's tracks are headed for VW commercials.

So far, the new VW Volkswagon commercials have featured the Wilco songs "The Thanks I Get", "Either Way", "Sky Blue Sky" and "You Are My Face".

As expected, this Madison Avenue music licensing deal has created the usual fan backlash. Coming to the band's defense is everyone from lead singer Jeff Tweedy's brother-in-law (writer Danny Miller) to the band Wilco itself:

As many of you are aware, Volkswagen has recently begun running a series of TV commercials featuring Wilco music. Why? This is a subject we've discussed internally many times over the years regarding movies, TV shows and even the odd advertisement. With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands (including Wilco); we see this as another way to get the music out there. As with most of the above (with the debatable exception of radio) the band gets paid for this. And we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them.

It can be puzzling when some music fans are quick to repeat the "music industry is evil" mantra, but then turn around and criticize their favorite musicians for trying to make a living from their own music while that same music industry is in such turmoil.

Sky Blue Sky Nonesuch Wilco Amazon Music Price:

Continuing the recent trend of advertisers commissioning "indie alt pop female singer-songwriters" to create ad music, new TV commercials for the Chevrolet Cobalt feature an exclusive track by Canadian singer Lily Frost. The ad follows a driverless blue Chevy Cobalt Sedan touring around city streets ending with a "Are you in?" tagline. The spot uses the song "The Two of Us", which is a duet by Frost and her husband José Miguel Contreras.

Lily Frost (aka Lindsey Davis) is no stranger to licensed music exposure -- her work has appeared in an episode of the TV show Grey's Anatomy, a commercial for The Bay department stores, and several other TV and movie soundtracks.

Responding to "popular demand" for the previously unreleased Chevy Cobalt song, Lily Frost's Aporia Records label has released a compilation album of her session songs called Flights of Fancy, with the Chevy ad song "The Two of Us" included as a hidden track on the release. It's welcome news to see a record label responding to fan requests by offering a piece of commercial music to the public, rather than being forced to disappoint a willing market for this type of unreleased ad music. Moral of the story for the music labels: record a full-length version of an ad song rather than just a 30 second "it's only for a TV ad" version.

Flights of Fancy Aporia Records Lily Frost Price: $6.66

The Hilton Hotel corporation promises you will be "calm. cool. relaxed." in a TV commercial for their DoubleTree Hotels chain. The jazzy song swaying its way throughout the new "Branches" DoubleTree commercial is Dinah Washington's "Relax Max" (iTunes). Featuring animated leaves sprouting scenes of what looks to be a nice hotel stay, the ad gets a nice boost from Washington's infectious voice, along with a musical arrangement by Quincy Jones and his orchestra.

Known as the "Queen of the Blues", Dinah Washington had a life and career to earn that label, in more ways than one. She was married seven times, divorced six times, and died of a drug overdose in 1963 at the age of 39. Speaking about her musical style, Quincy Jones said she "could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator and you would've still understood every single syllable."

Although "Relax Max" was never considered a hit single for Dinah Washington during her career, the song's appearance in the Double Tree Hotel commercial has caused a spike in sales of her album Swingin' Miss 'D'. As a member of the AdTunes.com forums puts it: "This song has been stuck in my head for weeks, and every time that Doubletree commercial comes on the air I have to crank up the volume."

Swingin' Miss 'D' Polygram Records Dinah Washington Amazon Music Price:

American Idol tries their best to squeeze one more tear out of a contestant (or Paula Abdul) as they are booted out of the singing competition by playing a melodramatic song during their farewell video. Last year's photo montages were accompanied by the downer of all downers "Bad Day" (iTunes) by Daniel Powter. The one-hit-wonder milked his fame for all it was worth and even landed a live performance of his song on the American Idol Season 5 Finale show.

This year Daniel Powter has been given the boot in favor of Season 5 loser Chris Daughtry and his own sad song called "Home" (iTunes). "The song had the sentiment to be the perfect ‘Idol’ exit song. It seemed to fit perfectly. That the song also is inside the Idol family — meaning producers profit if it and the album do well — couldn’t have hurt, either." (via Reality Blurred)

Daughtry RCA Daughtry Amazon Music Price: