Hi all, Kind of a slippery slope considering this kind of thing, eh? I think most peoples' gut reaction when hearing that an artist has a song in a commercial is that they 'sold out' somehow. The fact that many artists license their music for record promos, video games and now ring-tones usually doesn't get them the kind of finger pointing as they would for having a song in a commercial (that's not even mentioning how they license merchandise to a variety of companies). Not to mention all the corporate sponsorship that's being done for tours. As someone pointed out here, I do think there's a difference when a multi-platinum act does this. Does Sting really need to be in a car commercial? He probably doesn't need the money, right? Madonna and Michael Jackson probably didn't need the money from soft drink companies (but look what happened to them for their trouble). If John Zorn does music for a commercial, I don't begrudge him that at all, especially if this is used to fund his own work, Tzadik and other things that he's then able to do. Also, some performers realize that the perceived integrity of their work takes a knock when they do this sort of thing. That's why there was such an out-cry when the Beatles "Revolution" was heard in a Nike commerical in the 80's. Nowadays, you'll hear not just the Who or Led Zeppelin in commercials but also the Stooges and the Buzzcocks. Somewhere in the ad world in the last 10 years, there was a sea change where they thought 'we can hook boomers and their kids in with this stuff.' This was also reflected in the phone-answering services which recently implemented a choice for 'classical rock' in addition to the muzak we're used to hearing when we're on hold. I think that in all, because this is becoming more and more pervasive, people are getting less inclined to get upset about it. I also remember when they started including commercials in movie previews a few years ago- at first, people in the theatres would be booing at the screen but by now, everyone realizes that this is just an annoyance they have to sit through until the previews and the feature come around. Best, Jason Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine with warped perspectives perfect-sound@furious.com http://www.perfectsoundforever.com