Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus believes brand and artist partnerships are going to boom in the coming years as artists look for new avenues to fund the recording and production of their albums.
Hoppus made the comments as he was speaking at a session for the Midem music/technology forum currently taking place in Cannes, France. More specifically, Music Week reports Hoppus believes clothing labels will be the next corporate entities to fund artist albums, as a result of “the fallout of labels”.
“The brand influence on bands right now is something you’re going to be seeing a lot more of. The fallout of labels, the lack of funds they have to fund bands, there are going to be bands who have sponsored recordings and their albums are going to be sponsored and put out by Levis or Gap or whatever it is.
“There’s going to be a lot more of that because bands are having to turn to other places to fund themselves other than traditional labels.”
Clothing labels is something Blink-182 know all about – each of the band members have launched their own individual line over the years. Hoppus himself will be launching a new line – Hi My Name Is Mark – later this year.
Wired also added Hoppus believes the sponsored album method would also be a guaranteed backer for new acts on the scene who are “having such a hard time” making ends meet in a world filled with free/cheap downloading and streaming.
“I believe that artists should be paid for their creativity. There’s no other industry where people can come in and take what you create for free and give it away for free and that’s acceptable.
“I get that the people who download the most are the people who buy the most. But bands that are coming up now are having such a hard time. People used to tour to promote their albums, now the recorded music is a loss leader for T-shirts and concerts. It’s something I haven’t worked out and the music industry has been wrapping its head around for 10 years, but if you don’t pay artists they are not going to be able to create art.”
Blink 182 have previously had tours sponsored by brands such as Hurley and Billabong, and also had promotional deals with Honda and US telecommunications company AT&T.
The band will be in Australia for Soundwave 2013 and a series of sideshows next month.
