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According to Black Eyed Peas’ frontman, will.i.am, his most definitely is. In a recent article published by The Wall Street Journal will.i.am defines his approach to corporate sponsors, “I consider us a brand. A brand always has stylized [PowerPoint] decks, from colors to fonts. Here’s our demographic. Here’s the reach. Here’s the potential. Here’s how the consumer will benefit from the collaboration.” This approach has proved successful for the man who Randy Phillips, president and CEO of the concert promoter AEG Live, says could be “the best ad executive on Madison Avenue.” Not only do the Black Eyed Peas (or their songs) appear in partnership with giants like Coors, Levi’s, Honda, Apple, Verizon and Pepsi, but corporate sponsor “shout outs” have become a regular part of the live show. In the first half of every show will.i.am delivers a freestyle rap he creates from text messages scrolling on two large screens on-stage. The text messages are delivered by BlackBerry, the tour’s primary sponsor. The band also works in the company’s tagline “Love What You Do” into the seemingly impulsive monologue during the group’s performance of “Where Is The Love.” The Black Eyed Peas even performed a concert in Times Square for the sole purpose of promoting a new Samsung product.

For an industry of artists who have reported “it’s all about the music”, this band leader has been quoted as saying corporate partnerships are equally as important as music sales. What do you think? Savvy celebrity or sellout? Can a band be a brand?

Contributed by: Allison Jobes

Remember mixed tapes? The old school cassettes made for friends containing your favorite songs, with clever titles such as “Road Trip Mix 91″?

Fast forward 20+ years and enter slotRadio. From the looks of their advertising, the new music player + music card is targeting moms … busy moms in particular (although really, what mom today ISN’T busy?). I fall into this category, and it seriously took reading the ad several times plus a visit to their website to help me understand exactly WHAT they were selling. Is slotRadio a music player? Actual music? A big idea?

It’s really all three. slotRadio is a music player, with special “pre-filled” cards loaded up with music from specific categories. For example, I can choose a card with 1000 country-specific songs ready to play in my slotRadio player. Or a health and fitness card that has seven playlists created with specific activities in mind (cardio, cooldown, yoga, etc.). Great concept. Appropriate target. So what’s the problem?

The name. slotRadio. Sure it’s descriptive. Yes, it’s functional. But this is a category definer. No other manufacturer has a product like this. Imagine if Procter & Gamble had chosen to use “Dust-Trapping-Cloth-on-a-Stick” for their inventive product in 1999.

To make things even more confusing, the pre-loaded cards are branded slotRadio, as is the player. But the slotRadio card can actually be played on the Sansa Fuze and the Sansa Clip+. Seems to me a better option would have been to name the player slotRadio, and give the card (new, unique, different) a (new, unique, different) name.

Apple defined the personal music category with the iPod. Now SanDisk has a chance to redefine the playlist. Unfortunately I think the choice of name leaves the door wide open for a second player to come in and dominate with a more original brand name.

Take a peek at your music library: you’ll be amazed at how many familiar naming strategies you spot. Here are a few of my favorites:

REPETITION
Hot Hot Heat
Mr. Mister
Go-Gos
Duran Duran

RHYMING
Milli Vanilli
Lynard Skynard
Quiet Riot

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