image by Mike Sutfin
Hey there ladies, Gs and Gents (not to suggest that ladies can’t be Gs, or Gs can’t be Gents for that matter, but lets not go there right now). So, yesterday morning we received a friendly announcement with respect to the recently launched marketing campaign / music label, Green Label Sound. Sponsored by Mountain Dew and ultimately helmed by parent beverage and snacks company PepsiCo, GLS is being presented as a “program designed to help up and coming artists”. Their first release features The Cool Kids on an exclusive track called Delivery Man. Of course, The Cool Kids are smart enough to realize that questions of selling out would immediately be raised so included within the press release is their perspective (defensive much?) on the project. Here it is:
“We entered into the Green Label Sound program because we saw it as an opportunity to put a song out to the whole world with the backing of something that everyone grew up on,” said Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids. “Mountain Dew is not trying to push their product through music like everyone else; they just wanna support music. … And with us tying to set up our new record without a record company, Mountain Dew gives us an unexpected helping hand to get up those steps.”
Mikey Rocks of The Cool Kids added this. “Green Label Sound is giving artists like ourselves an opportunity to get to a different scale than we were previously on. The program gives us a further reach than we would’ve had on our own, but we still get to keep the same creative independence that we like to have.”
Here’s the thing though, it seems to me that the exact reason Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) created the program is, ultimately, to push their products. How anyone could think otherwise is beyond me. As pointed out by Wired Magazine’s recent, slightly critical, report, PepsiCo has a long history of using artists as spokespersons (missing from this list are a slew of rappers including Ludacris, Kanye West and even the The Notorious B.I.G., see: Pepsi Freestyle). Just because they are getting more sophisticated with their marketing programs, trying to pull instead of push, does that mean their goals have changed? The reason for their existence, the means of their survival, is to sell soda and potato chips to youths and young adults between 12 and 30 years of age. This should not be clouded by their sponsorship of artists, performers or anything else, hip-hop or not. But let’s for a moment consider the possibility that The Cool Kids really think the motivation behind GLS is altruistic in nature, are we to expect from them a music experience which, as they state, maintains creative independence? You know, it might just be possible. Forgiving for a moment that their cover art looks like a Mountain Dew can, the Delivery Man song actually doesn’t seem to have anything to do with soda. But what about when you attend a show? Or when you visit the website? Well, that’s another question.
Placing my personal conflicts with soda, high-fructose corn syrup and fast food aside, I have no strong objection to artists that align themselves with corporate sponsors, unless they front or rationalize the ultimate objective. That’s straight up bullshit. I can get beyond (or I should say, I don’t spend the time to dwell on) the fact that when an artist partakes in a corporate exercise, they are implicitly ok’ing the product, but don’t tell me that its all about the music, it never is. Inglish and Rocks are not known (as far as I know) for their anti-corporate stance or pro-health lyrics, so I don’t hate on them for this. But let it be known, in the same way marketers are becoming more subtle and sophisticated with their techniques, consumers are also becoming more aware. Even though companies, as KRS-One puts it, are beginning to recognize that authenticity is the new business model, consumers are also awakening to the fact that lifestyles can not be packaged, and products don’t become more acceptable through affiliation. We still don’t believe the hype. And I hope, somewhere deep down inside, the artists don’t either.
All about the music mp3 link: The Cool Kids – Delivery Man
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[...] The Cool Kids en particulier, en signant une sorte joint venture avec la filiale musicale d’une filiale de Pepsi : Moutain Drew, genre de soda citronné très junk drink y paraît, en aout dernier. Ce genre de partenariat qui a eu le don de leur amener leur lot de réactions pas cool de The Wired et pas mal de blogs, comme celui-ci. [...]
je suis d’accord avec Violon ici… i was really disappointed by this “Green Label” marketing campaign. On TV it was made to look like a new record company promoting genre-absent music. this was very interesting to me and something i would love to be a part of. At this moment now, though, doing a follow up net search, i find very little and it seems like it was only a disguised marketing campaign. Maybe it has just not yet worked out how the artists had hoped… best
The main thing I took away from this article is how caught up you (the writer) are in yourself. That aside, who cares if there’s Pepsi adds at concerts or on their website? It’s a great way for a relatively unknown group to get cash flow, nothing more.
its grrrreat!
nothing more
no significance
no hidden meaning
no consequences
its all about me me me me me
its all about the benjamins
i love me
OK, but let’s take a step back and be objective here.
Green Label Sound provides free mp3 downloads for genuinely good up and coming indie artists, promises not to interfere with the artists creative vision, and gives them exposure to a wider audience through some additional financial support.
The major record labels pay to keep independent artists off the radio through payola, sue college students and single mothers by the thousands, install rootkits on CDs and try to push DRM on an unsuspecting public, and have generally declared themselves to be at war with the internet.
Personally, I like the soda companies a lot more than I like the major labels. I haven’t checked out the other bands on GLS, but Matt and Kim are great, and their music hardly sounds compromised.
If this is the future of music promotion, I’d say this is a huge step forward, all things considered!
How do I contact Green Label Sound marketing dept?
Hello my name is Reginald Hilliard im the owner of the Rythymshack Recording Studio in Richmond V.A we have a lot of music that fits the style of what i listened to on your site. I would love to speak with someone about doing some work together. I can be reach @ 804-519-9191 or by E-Mail @ Gogitemusic@aol.com Thank you in advance have a great holiday!!!
R&B artist Natasha Jane from DC aka, the R&B Top Model, would be a great fit for green label sound…she got a song & video called “Top Model,” which is pretty hot…more chicks like her who are beautiful, can sing, write and have a message need to be at the top and in control of their own music…check her out http://www.myspace.com/natashajanejane
R&B artist Natasha Jane from DC aka, the R&B Top Model, would be a great fit for green label sound…she got a song & video called “Top Model,” which is pretty hot…more chicks like her who are beautiful, can sing, write and have a message need to be at the top and in control of their own music…check her out http://www.myspace.com/natashajanejane !
To Whom it May Concern,
Exciting news!! My game concept was chosen as one of 4 to be presented in the SXSW AAA Game Design Competition. They have suggested that we perform a hat trick +
1) The presentation of our interactive concept which includes the social networking component;
2) Screen our movie B.I.K.E.;
3) Host a live concert with one of our bands Japanther; (MATT AND KIM are also featured in TBJ with 2 songs)
AND
4) Host a live jousting event with Black Label Bike Club.
Let me know if you are interested in helping to sponsor any of these events. I blew my wad on the iPhone app which is getting great reviews — sales have sky rocketed 10 fold since the announcement. Get it here at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tall-bike-joust/id338779590?mt=8.
I’d love to partner with Mountain Dew / Green Label Sound to make some of this happen. I am also talking with an established technology company to set up booths for digital jousting
Here’s the press release.
Best,
Fredric
##
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SXSW SCREENBURN 2010 ANNOUNCES FINALISTS & SPOTLIGHTS BIKECLUB GAMES’ TALL BIKE JOUST
Highlighted in the Gaming, Film, and Music Categories will be the release of BikeClub Games’ TALL BIKE JOUST, B.I.K.E. and the music of Japanther
February 15, 2010 (NYC) – Just two weeks following the much-anticipated release of the 3-D iPhone app game, Tall Bike Joust (TBJ), organizers of the trendy indie, SXSW ScreenBurn in Austin, TX (March 12 -16, 2010) have selected it as one of four finalists in the AAA Game Design competition.
http://sxsw.com/node/4212
The SXSW festival began twenty-three years ago with the mission of identifying and introducing cutting-edge, up-and-coming talent to the world before it reaches a mainstream audience. In that tradition, ScreenBurn at SXSW created a Game Design Competition two years ago to draw attention to the fast-growing and popular interactive category. Selected from hundreds of game entrants, the 3-D, post-apocalyptic TALL BIKE JOUST will compete against Grimore, Robot Revolution and Shadow Wars for the coveted 2010 Best Game Design Award in the AAA Category to be chosen by a live jury vote of established professionals with audience participation.
Each year, SXSW celebrates the best of the alternative and innovative in film, music and interactive competition and this year, entries from Fountainhead Films and its gaming division BikeClub Games will showcase the international cult faction of underground freak bike culture that will be featured throughout the festival. Starting on March 13th – March 17th, BikeClub Games will begin our immersion into the SXSW festival with four events; a presentation of TALL BIKE JOUST and it’s expanding platforms will be competing in the Game Design Competition; there will be a screening of the cult film B.I.K.E.; Japanther – a band synonymous with the international mutant bike culture scene (featured in B.I.K.E. and TBJ) will perform in concert; and there will be a Tall Bike Jousting exhibition at a live bike event called “Death by Bike” spearheaded by the Austin, TX chapter of Black Label Bike. Additional shows by Japanther at SXSW are scheduled for March 17 and 18.
BikeClub Games’ TBJ was inspired by the indie cult film B.I.K.E., which chronicles the Black Label Bike Club and their legendary tall bike jousting exhibitions: http://bikethemovie.com.
TBJ introduces iPhone and iPod Touch gamers to a new experience in extreme sports within the international underground subculture of mutant bicycle clubs, putting gamers in the rider’s seat as they compete in jousting tournaments on tricked-out freak bikes within a complex 3-D fighting platform. The app is now available on the iTunes Store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tall-bike-joust/id338779590?mt=8.
Originally released on January 21, 2010 for $2.99, iPhone touch gamers will have the opportunity from March 12 – 21 to purchase TBJ for $.99 to celebrate the SXSW ScreenBurn festival.
SXSW draws an international audience of nearly 17,000 participants eager to express themselves, interact and experience the cutting-edge creative scene. Not since skateboarding or snowboarding has a subculture like tall bike jousting and freak bikes drawn so much attention and inspired so many to put some fun between their legs.
> — Ride Ur Bike— >
Learn more about the creators: Fountainhead Films/ BikeClub Games at:
fountainhead.com
bikeclubgames.com
CONTACT:
Fredric King @
fountainhead.com
159 West 25th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212 620 3092 (studio)
917 539 8372 (mobile)