Musicians market brands to sell their latest music

Madison Avenue and the music industry are joining forces to rewrite a line from "Twelfth Night" to declare, "If marketing be the food of love, play on."

Well-known bands and singers, along with their labels, are teaming with major advertisers and agencies for promotions that seek to sell brand-name products as well as CD's or downloads. The marketers benefit from the star power of artists ranging from the pop singer Gwen Stefani to the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas to the crooner Michael Bublé.

In turn, the record labels, with dwindling budgets to promote individual releases in an increasingly crowded market, benefit from the multimillion-dollar budgets the advertisers typically put behind the campaigns.

Read the article: www.nytimes.com