Monday, Jul. 21, 2008
BUSINESS NOTES ADVERTISING ROCK 'N' SELL IT
% Sigue Sigue Sputnik is a British band dedicated to new-wave rock music and what the group's bassist, Tony James, calls designer violence. The group is about to make a major breakthrough: its first LP, Sigue Sigue Sputnik Flaunt It, will be released in July in Britain--complete with commercials. The record has the ambiguous distinction of being the first to hawk wares between the cuts. Eight to ten 20- to 30-second tracks on the EMI record will extol such salables as cellular mobile telephones and fashion and youth magazines. According to Sigue Sigue, each advertising track will cost roughly $1,500, and the promotion will also appear on the album sleeve. The point, says Bassist James, is to keep down production costs. Besides, he notes, ''a lot of our records sound like advertisements.'' And now, vice versa.