Recovering Market（在线收听）

Recovering Market

While ¹⁾slumping CD sales have meant tough times for the music industry, it’s getting some back up from an unlikely source.

The music business has never been more commercial than it is right now.  Dirty Vegas’ “Days Go By” might have been a ²⁾bygone if it had never been featured in this ³⁾spot for the Mitsubishi ⁴⁾Eclipse. The commercial ⁵⁾catapulted the previous obscure song into the top 15 and help it ⁶⁾nab a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording.

Scott Shannon is the morning DJ and program director for New York’s ⁷⁾WPLJ.

Shannon (WPLJ Program Director): When that song by Dirty Vegas started to hit, we started playing it immediately and people “hey what it that, I heard that on television.”

It’s the latest music industry trick to get air play and more importantly to sell CDs. Over the past two years, CD sales have ⁸⁾plummeted by more than 100 million units: 785 million discs were sold in 2000 compared to just 681 million last year. At the same time that more people are downloading and sharing tunes online, it’s becoming more expensive to produce and promote CDs. So much so that Sony Entertainment lost $132 million dollars in the first half of its fiscal year. The Dirty Vegas commercial was such a hit that Mitsubishi followed it up with a spot for the Outlander featuring another so called electronic song, “Breathe.” The tune by a new group called Telepop Music is now on several billboard playlists.

Pierre Cachoh (Mitsubishi Motors N.A. Pres. & CEO): The most powerful ⁹⁾bloop is when a DJ comes out of a radio and says “and now the Mitsubishi song.” It’s hard to explain the phenomenon: what we were so pleased with is that we know we are breaking through when these songs become popular.

And car companies are not the only ones driving the trend. ¹⁰⁾Target stores recently hit the bull’s eye during the holiday shopping season with its commercial featuring a remake of the “Christmas Song” with Stevie Wonder and neo soul artist India. Arie. Target’s unexpected return on the investment is a Grammy nomination for Best Pop ¹¹⁾Collaboration With Vocals. It’s the first time a song recorded specifically for commercial has received the honor. ¹²⁾Veteran artists besides Stevie Wonder are also benefiting from the concept.

During the Superbowl, Celine Dion launched her partnership with Chrysler with a cover of ¹³⁾Cyndi Lauper’s “Drove All Night.” Chrysler hopes the campaign will accelerate sales of its vehicles while Dion hopes it builds buzz for her new CD, which hits stores next month.

Volkswagen is also caught the buzz putting up fresh musician named Ben Neill in its commercials.

Ben Neill (Musician): There is a real kind of ¹⁴⁾convergence between a brand, an ad agency and a record company. And it’s worked out really well for me.

Time wise not too long ago if a recording artist sold their music just to be used in a commercial, it was considered selling out. Now it’s turned into a way of selling more.

无心插柳柳成荫

在CD销量骤减、业内一片萧条的情况下，唱片公司却通过一些出人意料的途径起死回生。

音乐业与商业的联系从来没有这样紧密。如果不是借着三菱“日蚀”跑车广告片的光的话，德迪·维加斯的这首《逝水年华》也许早已成为过眼云烟。这部商业广告片把这首原本籍籍无名的歌很快捧入前15名，并助它获得格莱美最佳舞曲专辑提名。

斯科特·夏侬是纽约WPLJ电台的早晨节目主持人和节目总监。

夏侬（WPLJ电台节目总监）: 德迪·维加斯的歌一经推出，我们立即播放他们的歌。人们很惊奇地说，那是什么歌？我在电视上听到过。

通过电台播放音乐唱片，更重要的是卖出更多CD——这是音乐产业的最新花样。在过去两年里，CD销量暴跌了一亿多张：2000年的唱片销量为7亿8500万张；与此对比，去年的销量仅有6亿8100万张。与此同时，越来越多的人下载和共享在线音乐，而CD的制作和宣传成本却越来越高。情况如此糟糕，以致索尼娱乐公司在其前半个财政年度就亏损了1亿3200万美元。德迪·维加斯的广告片大获成功，这使得三菱公司紧接着为“奥兰达”越野车也制作了一部广告片，即另一支所谓的电子单曲《呼吸》。这支单曲由一个名为“电视流行乐”的新组合演唱，如今它在好几个流行榜上都有名。

皮埃尔·卡赫（三菱汽车公司）: 最愚蠢的行为莫过于一个DJ跳出来说，现在是三菱公司推出的歌曲。很难解释这样的现象，当这些歌曲广为流行的时候，我们知道我们取得了突破——这正是我们乐意看到的。

并不是只有汽车公司在左右时尚。最近，塔吉特公司在假日购物旺季引发了一场风暴∶他们特别推出了史蒂夫·旺德和新灵乐艺术家印蒂亚·艾瑞重新制作的《圣诞欢歌》。塔吉特公司获得一项意外投资回报——《圣诞欢歌》获格莱美最佳流行音乐合唱奖提名。这是头一次一首专为广告录制的歌曲获此殊荣。经验丰富的艺术家，包括史蒂夫·旺德，正受惠于这一观念。

在美国橄榄球超级杯赛期间，席琳·迪翁开始与克莱斯勒汽车公司合作，重新演绎辛迪·劳帕的那首《为爱奔驰》。克莱斯勒公司希望这个商业活动能促进汽车销售，迪翁则希望能为她下个月面市的新唱片制造声势。

大众汽车公司也赶上了潮流，他们起用一位名叫本·尼尔的新歌手，并与之签订了广告合约。

本·尼尔（音乐家）: 在品牌广告代理商和唱片公司之间存在一种真正的一致性。对我来说，这确实很有效果。

不久前，如果歌手们单凭商业音乐来谋生，被视为异类。如今它已经成为一种唱片热销的手段。

注释:

1) slump [slQmp] v. （物价等）暴跌；萧条  

2) bygone [5bai^C(:)n] n. 过去的事情，往事

3) spot [spCt] n. 插在广播（或电视节目）间的简短广告（或通知）

4) eclipse [i5klips] n. 被遮蔽；（声明、威望等）黯然失色

5) catapult [5kAtEpQlt] n. 弹弓

6) nab [nAb] v. 猛然抓取；逮捕

7) WPLJ: 纽约一个流行/摇滚音乐电台，播出歌曲以排行榜前40名流行歌曲为主

8) plummet [5plQmit] v. 骤然跌落

9) bloop [blu:p] v. 做蠢事

10) Target: 塔吉特是继沃尔玛、克罗格、西尔斯之后的美国第四大零售商，主要经营服装、家庭用品、电器、卫生、美容品以及日常消费品

11) collaboration [kE7lAbE5reiFEn] n. 协作

12) veteran [5vetErEn] n. 老战士，老兵

13) Cyndi Lauper: 辛迪·劳帕于1953年6月出生于美国纽约皇后区，曾担任“蓝色天使”的乐队歌手，并赢得BILLBOARD 最佳女艺人，《滚石》最佳艺人，CASHBOX年度最佳女艺人等荣誉

14) convergence [kEn5v\:dVEns] n. 集中，收敛