Music Inc. 2019: Music In Advertising Panel

Music. Inc 2019: Music shouldn’t be the last protocol but the first when creating an ad film: Industry Experts. Music industry experts share their views on brands and their collaboration with music artists at Music.Inc’19

On the second day of Music.Inc, a Loudest.in and exchange4media’s music and business conference saw engaging talks on the collaboration of music and brands. One such panel discussion was on the topic: Music in advertising: Sync, Licensing, Endorsements and Sonic Branding. This topic was discussed among an esteemed group of panellist like Priyanka Khimani, Co-Founder & Partner, Anand, Anand & Khimani, Kiran D'cruz, Director Brand Partnerships, Sony Music India, Arthur Pingrey, Music Producer, Entrepreneur and Shamir Tandon, Founder, Music Boutique. The moderator for the session was Rajeev Raja, Founder, BrandMusiq.

A lot has changed over the years in the way brands interact with music. Sync and Licensing have been an integral part of that change.

Speaking about music in advertising and sync licensing D'cruz, Director Brand Partnerships, Sony Music India stated, “Sync Licensing is basically using licensed tracks and taking a hit track and syncing it by integrating it to your TVC or brand ad film. Because of the popularity of the track, it is obvious that the TVC is going to be a winner. The business has evolved to such an extent where you have various tools that enable creative directors and production houses to be able to pinpoint and say what exactly works for an ad film based on the parameters like mood boards where you are able to inculcate tracks providing the agency with a lot of options.”

D’cruz believes that in India there hasn’t been a concept of music planning per se and that is where music licensing comes in. “For the music industry, we have been evangelising the concept of sync where we have done workshops with creative directors. To show that music is not the last protocol but should also be considered when you are creating an ad film and on your storyboard”, remarked D’cruz.

Even Pingrey, Music Producer, Music Supervisor, Entrepreneur said that sync licensing is very important for branding. Pingrey said, “What I would like to see and what is already happening in the US it’s not just about licensing music and put it in a commercial. It is a deeper relationship between the artist and the brands. The artist is benefiting from the exposure and the brand benefits from the artist cultural cache. There are other levels too like brand partnerships and product placement and using the artist in the TVC. A lot of advertising is getting into influencer marketing and music artist are influencers too.”

Now, there is really a push to use the artist and the brand where the brand is collaborating with the artist in a way that the brand gets the recognition without jeopardizing the integrity of the artists work. Creating something that works for both parties.

Khimani, Co-Founder & Partner,  Anand & Anand & Khimani, stated that the approach of advertising has changed. “People are not just watching ads on their television screens anymore. The target audience is different. We saw deals 5 years ago where a brand went to a big star or music composer. Have them do an anthem and that was it. We were playing top dollar to get it done. Now we see brand campaigns being created around an influencer who has a certain demographic on social media. It is interesting that music has become the first part of the conversation and not the last thing that needs to be plugged in with a brand”, remarked Khimani.

From an artist perspective Shamir Tandon, Founder, Music Boutique agrees that there has been a shift from simple jingles to actually creating content for the brand. “The brand is non-intrusive in the content that has been created. We have shifted the PNL pressure where the artist is allowed to make the music the artist wants to make and integrating branding too”, said Tandon.

Brands should work with emerging artists to bring awareness of the brand together. Instead of running a static jingle.