The Song Fight Bulletin Board

As you guys may or may not know, I work at an ad agency. (Which is part of the reason I haven't been fighting that much, but that's another story.) We're looking for songs to use on the new cadillac spot. Here's what my boss sent out:

"In case you may not be aware of it, we are launching a new Cadillac CTS,
a very hot, sexy BADD-ASS car. High tech. High Lux.

We are looking for a great song or songs to use as a bed for our TV spots.

It needs to have energy, should be cool and sexy and confident. As there
will be a voice over through most of the spot, the section of the song
should be mostly instrumental."

Now he's expecting us to give him a CD of songs by major label artists, which I will do, but if anyone sends me a song of their own that I think would fit well in the commercial, I'll include it. If it gets used, you get the normal amount of money that an artist gets paid when their song is used in a commercial. Which I imagine is somewhere along the lines of one hojillion dollars.

This is not a contest. Don't bother sending me generic guy+guitar stuff; I won't show my boss anything less than a song that fits in well with a CD full of professional songs. Yes, that means it has to be well-produced. Yes, that knocks a lot of you out of the running. And I won't show it if I don't personally think it would fit. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

They tend to like rock (they've used The Teddybears and The Pogues in the past), but a techno feel might also be appropriate here too. I'm thinking a fast tempo would be almost a requirement.

One more kicker: You have you get me the song(s) by Monday night (June 11th). I'm handing him the CD Tuesday morning.

PS - if you have ideas of other peoples' songs (famous or not) that you think would fit, please send those over too. If any one gets used, I'll do something super nice for you.

To check out the car, go to http://www.cadillac.com and click on the 2008 CTS button near the bottom.

<a href="http://chris.hoblit.net/sound/Hoblit-Accelerator.mp3" target="resource window">Hoblit - Accelerator</a> Too heavy I'm sure, but car related none the less.

<a href="http://www.ghosttowngridlock.com/mp3s/GTG-Nova.mp3" target="resource window">Ghost Town Gridlock - Nova</a> Another car related song about my old Mazda...car related.

I realize these may not be what your looking for but I thought I'd throw them out there anyways. IF you do want them for any reason, I'll zip up the original WAV files (maybe even tweak the mixes and remaster them) and make the available for download. You can either PM or ignore me!

<a href="http://chris.hoblit.net/sound/Hoblit-Ho ... ynesia.mp3" target="resource window">Hoblit - Honeymoon In Polynesia</a> Not about cars at all... but pretty, confident, all that other stuff...lots of instrumental parts.

Cool... More of my songs are instrumentals than vocal tracks.
I'll have to think about what songs I have that are sexy and cool and confident, heh, but you can try this one for now, it's a little weird maybe:

Mr. Underhill, I Presume?
-bill

we have a long weekend this weekend, perfect for disgracing myself in a feeble cash grab. You know I'm good for it though, right c hack.

for some reason when i think of a cool sexy night drive around town,
the song "Maybe Tomorrow" by the Stereophonics comes to mind.

Then off course that album has been whored up by car commercials. i believe "Jealousy" and "Madame Helga" has been use by Ford or Chevy.

2cents.

is there a day by which you need to turn this cd in?

i.p. wrote:is there a day by which you need to turn this cd in?

c hack wrote:
One more kicker: You have you get me the song(s) by Monday night (June 11th). I'm handing him the CD Tuesday morning.

c hack wrote:If it gets used, you get the normal amount of money that an artist gets paid when their song is used in a commercial. Which I imagine is somewhere along the lines of one hojillion dollars.

Hoblit wrote:

i.p. wrote:is there a day by which you need to turn this cd in?

c hack wrote:
One more kicker: You have you get me the song(s) by Monday night (June 11th). I'm handing him the CD Tuesday morning.

ohhboy.
long.night.
and.my.spacebar.just.broke....

I'm curious about the rights the artist retains for this use. Each deal is different. Will the artist retain full rights and therefore receive performance royalties? Or is this considered along the lines of "work for hire"? Seeing as they license commercial artists' work, I assume the former.

roymond wrote:I'm curious about the rights the artist retains for this use. Each deal is different. Will the artist retain full rights and therefore receive performance royalties? Or is this considered along the lines of "work for hire"? Seeing as they license commercial artists' work, I assume the former.

I also assume the former. But you know what happens when you assume: sometimes you're wrong.

I do know that we pull commercials from our sites after a while b/c we no longer have the rights to the music. The music is licensed. I seriously doubt the phrase "work for hire" would ever come up.

HeuristicsInc wrote:Cool... More of my songs are instrumentals than vocal tracks.
I'll have to think about what songs I have that are sexy and cool and confident, heh, but you can try this one for now, it's a little weird maybe:

Mr. Underhill, I Presume?

I could easily make an instrumental version of Rattle or Dark All Day.

Perhaps Regeneration, especially when the bass comes in, but it's a long one (11mins).

Also recommended: Brad Sucks.
-bill

I just had a laugh thinking of my "Let Me In" song for this. I'd change the chorus from "let me in" to let me drive", and remove my lead vox entirely. I swear the music sounds like a bad ass Cadi song, LMAO!
With words like "sexy" and "BAD ASS", it sounds like Cadi is trying to appeal to a younger "cooler" crowd than their usual over 50 crowd.

I think my Sugar Shaker has the right vibe. Of course I could remove the vocal and/or re-edit the track however needed for the spot. Thanks for this opportunity, 'hack!

http://www.wickware.ca/music/SugarShaker.mp3

i tried putting something together, but as I suspected, anything I make can hardly be considered 'badass' or 'sexy'.

The best I can suggest is A Woman Never Forgets, pull the vocals out and bring Caravan Rays guitar up a bit and it would be pretty kick'n. But honestly, I think you would just be embarassing yourself in from of the boss.

My Sister Cocaine might fit your bill. As always, there's always the band Gogol Bordello to check out: I Never Want to be Young Again

Rabid Garfunkel wrote:My Sister Cocaine might fit your bill. As always, there's always the band Gogol Bordello to check out: I Never Want to be Young Again

Damn, those dudes are like Octo#horpe on crack.

I just submitted 3 CDs full of songs, including most of what you guys linked me to. Good luck!