Today to see someone plugged into the internet downloading music is very common and a disappointment to most artists. Not all commercials today are just aimed at promoting alcohol or being sexually provocative; they send a message. Would you stop illegally downloading music files if Britney Spears asked? How about Brian Wilson? Eminem? Or Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Madonna, P.O.D., Marilyn Manson, 3 Doors Down? They've all signed on to an ad campaign aimed at discouraging illegal music file trading on the Internet. The 30 second ad ran about 3 times in Indiana while I was visiting my mom over the break. Other artists who have signed on to the campaign are Barenaked Ladies, Elton John, Kiss' Gene Simmons, Hootie and the Blowfish, Vanessa Carlton, Rush, and the Wallflowers. At the end of the commercial it also says that the ad mirror content is on the Web site for MusicUnited, which I found out was a coalition of industry organizations such as Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Songwriters Guild of America, and the Country Music Association.
During the commercial the artists voiced many of their opinions based on the majority of the country downloading music. "If you rob artists of their means of earning, eventually there will be no art of consequence or substance," Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik writes on the site. "I'm sorry; when I worked 9-to-5, I expected to get a paycheck every week," Eminem writes. "It's the same with music; if I'm putting my heart and all my time into music, I expect to get rewarded for that. I work hard and anybody can just throw a computer up and download my music for free. It could kill the whole purpose of making music." As you can tell the purpose of this commercial is to address the ever spreading disease of downloading music with big name artist, and not to promote Britney Spears new album with her dancing around half naked.