Pink Moon and Pop Stars

I discovered the music of Nick Drake in 1985, eleven years after his premature death at age 26. His music was relatively obscure, but had a strong, small following at the time. It wasn’t until Volkswagen used his song Pink Moon in a 2000 television commercial that Drake’s music reached widespread popularity. Within one month of that commercial, more Drake records had been sold than in the previous 30 years.

When I watch this commercial, my heart literally aches with sadness over Drake’s depression and possible suicide, and with the total distastefulness of using his lyrics and music to sell a car. The obvious irony, however, is that now more people can enjoy his work.

Such is the sentiment for many Chinese pop stars, according to this BBC News Asia-Pacific article entitled ‘Chaos' of China's music industry. When an advertiser chooses an artist to promote its product, the artist becomes more commercially popular and can make a lot more money. “Chinese pop stars rely heavily on these types of commercial performances, which make up more than half of their income,” notes the article.

Singer Agi and her band Mika Bomb made $2,000 a month from music royalties and live shows while in the UK. In China, she and her band Long Kuan Jiu Duan can almost double that amount by performing one commercial. In this video, Long Kuan Jiu Duan performs Lotus Flower.

"It's really hard to earn money from records because of illegal downloading from the internet and pirated CDs," Agi said. The Chinese recording industry has given up on trying to halt the piracy, purely by necessity rather than by choice, said Shen Lihui, the head of China's largest independent label, Modern Sky, based in Beijing. According to the article, Modern Sky’s entire record collection can be downloaded for free through the country's largest search engine, Baidu.com. The World Trade Organization is currently investigating the problem of piracy in China.

Shen is still optimistic that China will be at the forefront of the music industry in the future. "You can do anything in China. It's the freest place. Try another business model," he said. Indeed, the future may hold the opportunity for corporate sponsorship of Chinese pop stars.