The Cadillac Add !

[Guest]

My first reaction is disappointment. I am a huge Pogues fan my first concert was during the fall from grace tour. I do now have much money, but I saved and flew from California to Glasgow 2 ½ years ago to see the Pogues as at the time I though you may never come to the California.. Saw the Pouges again this year in both Vegas and Los Angeles. Sunny Side Of the Street was one of the first songs played at our wedding. I hope this song has not been forever ruined for me as it has always been one of my absolute favorite tunes.

Phillip, you guys do not owe me shit, you have brought me much joy over the years, but if you could clear up how things like this take place, ownership, how decisions are made on who gets to use the music etc I would very much appreciate it. I do not want to prejudge without knowing the facts.

I’m sure not everyone shares my concern … I am just speaking from the heart. I can’t help how I feel.

[Guest]

btw - that guest post is from Stephan.

[stephan]

Sorry, three posts in a row. I see some of what I wrote got cut off - these are my fist posts at this site so I'm a bit awkward, anyway...

I am equally shocked that this can be done without all membrs of the band knowing. How is that possible? Someone must give their approval for this stuff. I’m trying very hard not to be a hypocrite, it's your art, your product, you have a right to do with it what you want, but if it's about the money surely there could have been a company less offensive to the sell the song to then GM who have fought unions, safety and emission standards every step of the way for the last 100 years. I must say that I find it funny and ironic that GM saw no problem linking Shane singing about "little kids without no shoes" and "a lust for vomit" in association with the top of the line gas guzzling yuppie automobiles.

[Billys Bones]

You might consider ligthening up a bit Stephan! Philip already has said he (they) didn't know about it and even if they did, they are well within their right to do whatever they want...

[Sephan]

I thought I said as much ... I will stay tuned maybe more will come to light.

[John Powers]

If you had asked me before, I would have said that I don´t want to see Pogues music in any commercial, let alone a huge car company commercial. But I have have to admit that right now I wish that they advertised Cadillac in Finland...

[Billys Bones]

I thought I said as much ... I will stay tuned maybe more will come to light.

timing..responses passed in the wires

[DzM]

Phillip, you guys do not owe me shit, you have brought me much joy over the years, but if you could clear up how things like this take place, ownership, how decisions are made on who gets to use the music etc I would very much appreciate it. I do not want to prejudge without knowing the facts.

I can't speak from any first-hand experience, so take this as only blush of accuracy. Philip will have to fix any errors.

In most of these cases the artists are not involved in the licensing decisions. The label and/or publisher own the distribution rights and will make the best deals they can to maximize their profits on a recording. The artists will typically find out about such licensing when a royalty check shows up (a smallish one that gets smaller over time for performance royalty, and a larger one for composer/writer).

I'd say it's a very safe bet that none of The Pogues were consulted on this licensing.

[Dropofpoison]

If you had asked me before, I would have said that I don´t want to see Pogues music in any commercial, let alone a huge car company commercial.

Think of it this way. Is it not better the money is in the hands of The Pogues than GM?

[mordac]

Reminds me of an editorial I read years ago, whenever the John Lennon "Instant Karma" Nike adds came out. That might be a U.S.-only reference, but I can't remember the year... early 90's I think. There was a minor backlash of people complaining about a Lennon song used in a commercial. The editorial writer was gloating over the fact that all those lovely virtuous 60's songs were now commercials, but the punk music he listened to as kid would never appear in a commercial, not just because "selling out" was anathema to thier ideals, but because the music was so blatantly anti-authoritarian and just plain offensive to the vast majority of people.

Well since then, there's been commercials using music from the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, and I can't even guess how many others. Using a song nearly 20 years after the release doesn't strike me as too offensive. Cross-promoting a new album with a whole raft of sponsors would be very questionable and I'd probably assume the whole enterprise is crap.

Personally I think it's wonderful that more people are hearing the Pogues. I'm going to the show in Philly.

[DzM]

Well since then, there's been commercials using music from the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, and I can't even guess how many others. Using a song nearly 20 years after the release doesn't strike me as too offensive. Cross-promoting a new album with a whole raft of sponsors would be very questionable and I'd probably assume the whole enterprise is crap.

I heard an interview with little Johnny Cougar (err ... Mellencamp). His take on the cross promotion with Chevy (or is it GM?) was something along the lines of (paraphrasing):

"In this day of corporate radio and media-built celebrity, there are now only two ways for most artist's to reach their audience - New Media Partnerships like having your song used in an ad that attributes the artist, or niche marketing on the Internet. This seemed the best way to get the new album in front of as many people as possible without having to deal with ClearChannel."

Frankly I'm all for anybody trying to explore new ways around ClearChannel.

[Frances]

ClearChannel.

I had an acquaintance, relatively high on the ClearChannel management food chain, who was the most self-absorbed, vapid thing I'd ever met.He would name drop ...."I'm off to the 50Cent show".... and I would always tell him "I'm not familiar,"...to see if he ever caught on (that I wasn't impressed.) He never did.One day he had just dyed his hair jet black and was wearing a very tightly cinched raincoat.Just like da.. da.. da.. da.. da.. Inspector Gadget. Which I began to sing, of course.

Other people found him dreamy.He had a strikingly beautiful wife and child.

I ran into them during intermission at a play with my nieces, the eldest who screamed out "WORLD DOMINATION" when I told her who he was.He definitely heard her, and it cracked me up.

[philipchevron]

Probably, as DZM suggests, our record company are entitled to do all sorts of shabby things with our music in return for our high royalty rate. If you are Tom Waits, and there is, therefore, only one of you, you probably have more clout in determining how your music is used to sell other merchandise. But in an 8-piece band, this is nearly impossible and is, in any event, low on our list of Don't Dos, life being short and all that. This is far from the first time Pogues music has been used in a commercial anyway. We have previously helped sell both beer and yes, cars.

If you want my honest opinion, I think it's all a bit sordid, not so much because it's "selling out" (a concept I never really understood - I'm a musician, in order to stay a musician, in the absence of both socialism and patronage, I need to sell my music) but because I hate noise pollution and loud automobile commercials, however tuneful and subversive, do nothing to reduce the levels of extraneous noise in the world.

On another post, someone is complaining that the New York tickets for our shows, are "already overpriced" at $55. Ok bud, try translating that into the considerably stronger British pound and see what you get for it. (less than £30).

If I were to address every issue of this nature that comes up, I would never get any work done. Try estimating how long it took me to write this post.

You'll just have to work with me on this - if I do not respond to a topic within a few days, I probably have nothing more to say on the matter.

Love

Phil

[dave 81]

Not just Sunnyside of the Street in the commercials, but Celine Dion singing the unmistakeable first line of Fairy Tale of New York (but with different words, from Once Upon A Time In America) during Morricone's homage too.

Must've missed it. As soon as Celine Dion comes on, I often find something better to do.

God, I missed all of it. Just followed the Sunday ritual...The Simpsons, and then off to "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery. I can't believe I missed all the beautiful people.
Come on, this Academy Awards stuff is really getting in the way of really big Anna Nicole News.

[Adam]

I jumped out of my chair when it came on during teh Oscars. It was the best moment of teh whole show.

The only ones who need to approve a song's use are the owner of the publishing and the owner of the master. The record company is probably the latter, and I don't have the CD on hand to see who is the former. Generally it needs to be approved if you are taking the music and using it in a different medium (for example, TV broadcast). The song could be put on a compilation CD with less approval than that. And teh songwriter(s) could easily have given the publisher the right to approve the song's use in their contract, without the publisher being required to contact the writer. So it is certainly possible that none of the Pogues necessarily knew that it was being licensed for use.

(from a guy who has had to license music)