Apparently there are some lines even the most strapped-for-cash indie bands won’t cross.
Case in point: the ad agency for GM’s Hummer SUV is happy to offer upwards of $50,000 in exchange for using songs in Hummer ads, if only they could find a band to take the money:
GM’s brand of luxury SUVs may be one of the most fashionable modes of transportation in the world, but Hummer ad money is turned down like, well, like nothing else. That’s even more shocking when you consider many of the artists in line to benefit could double their yearly income by saying yes. The offers generally begin at $50 grand â€â€? a ton of money for relative unknowns. “My standard line is you guys will play a hundred million gigs before you see this amount of money,” [Bank Robber Music CEO Lyle] Hysen said. “Usually they come back with, ‘We’ll do anything BUT Hummer.’”
Considering what a band could do with $50K these days, it’s pretty shocking to read this. Then again, taking on such a deal sends a signal to your fanbase, one that could be interpreted any number of unexpected ways. Would you take the money?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good to see people still stand for something.
I think Ted Nugent would be great for this and I’m sure he’d do it. “Stranglehold” would work perfectly, too. Commercial could have a bunch of oil company guys laughing. Stranglehold, indeed.
I’m impressed that musicians are turning down Hummer. It makes me proud of this business.
After all, aren’t they pitching a community that’s HYPER-sensitive to gas prices?
I wouldn’t give them a song connected to my band. I might write something independent of it for them though, and take the money. Of course, now that that article is out, they’ve probably got hundreds of bands calling them.