Via Rolling Stone: Rock's New Economy: Making Money When CDs Don't Sell

Some good stories and examples here: Rock's New Economy: Making Money When CDs Don't Sell : Rolling Stone.

"While up-and-coming bands may find most of their licensing offers in the $2,500 range, established bands can make much more: from $30,000 at the high end for TV shows to $100,000 for movies and $250,000 for commercials. To introduce last year's Sky Blue Sky, Wilco licensed six of the album's songs to Volkswagen for ads. And the veteran duo They Might Be Giants, who have been releasing recordings on their own for the last six years, made a deal with Dunkin' Donuts for around $1 million to create original music for over two dozen spots, according to industry sources...."

This kind of reminds me of the days of my first digital music startup, Licensemusic - clearly this is a huge opportunity since more music than ever before will be needed for all those new rich media ads, games, online video sites and TV channels

The Ting Tings
"Shut Up and Let Me Go"
In an ad for Apple's iPod and iTunes