Music Tour Sponsorships Top 1 Billion Buckeroos in 2008

[DudeAsInCool]

Brandweek sadly notes, "It's been 20 years since Neil Young famously declared that he wouldn't sing for Miller or Bud. These days, most rockers are singing a different tune as the concert sponsorship business has skyrocketed.

While media segments like newspapers and network TV post declines, music tour sponsorships have grown 75% since 2003 and will hit $1.04 billion this year, per IEG, a Chicago-based company that tracks sponsorship dollars.:

And that's not all.

The New York Post writes that "Red Bull, the energy drink, wants to follow Starbucks' lead and get into the branded record label business," and is building a recording studio in Santa Monica, California.

It appears everyone wantsto be in show business. The Wall Street Journal also reports that Chlorax (that's right, the Bleach Company), "has put out its first album. "The Blue Sky Project: A Clorox Charity Collection" has seven songs, five of which were created for the company's TV advertising campaign. In contrast to older Clorox ads that used upbeat jingles, the new ads use ethereal orchestral music and pop tunes to sell the company's line of bleaches, disinfectants and other home-cleaning products."

Whatever happened to the folks who were just in it for the music?