In the midst of the unstable economy and struggles of the music industry, a sector of the industry that has seen steady growth in the past couple of years are the music licensing departments. Now that it's harder and harder to get people to actually buy CDs and the avenues of music exposure are becoming more niche and fragmented, the business of licensing music has provided a way to reinvigorate the single and break artists through to a mass audience.
Some examples of the convergence of music and traditional and new media via music placement:
- MTV's heavy use of music to set the mood and create a soundtrack to the events on their reality shows such as Laguna Beach and The Hills have helped exposed numerous artists to millions of viewers. Back in the Laguna Beach days, MTV put up the soundtracks following each episode for free download on MTV.com.
- The Fray would not be THE FRAY today without Grey's Anatomy. The decision of the show and network to use "How to Save a Life" as the main song in the advertising promotions for the show's season three premier helped launch the song into Top 40, selling over one million downloads.
- Smashing Pumpkins released their single "G.L.O.W." in 2008 via Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rise Against released "Death Blossom" in the same edition of the game, and Wolfmother released "Cosmic Egg" just last week on Guitar Hero 5.
- The Madden NFL video games have always placed a great importance on their soundtracks, helping break artists like Yellowcard ("Way Away" on Madden 2004)and Pitbull ("Fuego" on Madden 2008) to a wider audience.
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