Jeff Leeds from the New York Times reports on "a new type of business relationship based on labels looking past the latest CD sales figures". My concern here--and it's a point the the article makes--is that major record labels are ill equipped and inexperienced to handle an artist's business beyond music sales, marketing and PR and music video production. As record labels based their business on tomorrow's chart numbers, managers and artists realize the labels may not have their best interests at heart. In my experience, when a label is approached by a brand to work their products into a music video, the label is seeking to meet some bottom line, quarterly number. On the other hand, manager's take great care to discuss the appropriate brand partnerships with their artists.
