Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
Music branding” does not involve stamping horses with band logos (at least not yet). But it does apply to just about anything else in which a commercial entity — from Taco Bell to JPMorganChase — partners with an artist or music company.
Which is why, at the beginning of last year’s Brat Summer, Charli xcx appeared as a 3D hologram activated by White Claw drinkers who aimed their phones at a product logo; why Nike spent in the low seven figures to license Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” for a Super Bowl LIX commercial; why Will Ferrell sang a PayPal jingle set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere”; and why Pinterest set up Coachella “manifest stations” filled with beauty products curated by singer Victoria Monét.
“It can be a tour sponsorship, a social media campaign, a tie-in with a brand’s philanthropic endeavor,” says Marcie Allen, president of MAC Consulting, who has been connecting artists with brands for 30 years and was one of 15 music industry experts who helped Billboard compile its first Branding Power Players list since 2019. “Brand partnerships are bigger than they have ever been because they give companies the ability to break through the noise.”
There are no metrics that quantify the overall music-branding market, because it’s so multifaceted — from the multimillion-dollar advertising synch business to singer-songwriter RAYE performing intimate concerts at Hilton hotel rooms, footage of which appeared in commercials and social media posts. That said, a hint of its scale can be found in the financial filings of the industry’s largest concert promoter, Live Nation, whose worldwide sponsorship revenue has grown from $590.3 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion in 2024. (Advertising and sponsorship amounted to just over 5% of Live Nation’s total revenue last year.)
“We’re seeing brands spending more in music than ever before,” says Russell Wallach, the promoter’s global president of media and sponsorship. He adds that Live Nation research shows 80% of its customers are “interested” in participating with brands at live events. “What brands are doing from an experiential standpoint has been significantly elevated over the last few years.”
Post-pandemic, according to Allen, brands have returned aggressively to the live space — like T-Mobile sponsoring this summer’s Post Malone-Jelly Roll tour.
The synch business, too, has more than rebounded since the pandemic: Global revenue amounted to $400 million in 2020, mostly due to production shutdowns, but it hit $632 million in 2023, according to IFPI. That’s an increase of 58%, from 0.4% of global recording-industry revenue in 2020 to 2.2%. (These numbers don’t include publishing, but they do include film/TV synchs in addition to advertising.) For this year’s Super Bowl, licensed songs cost between $400,000 and $2.5 million on the publishing side alone, music industry sources say, not counting the separate fees for licensing master recordings. According to Brian Monaco, Sony Music Publishing’s president/global chief marketing officer, 50% of this year’s Super Bowl ads, which cost brands a reported $7 million to $8 million apiece, employed synchs.
In the streaming era, brands and music companies are more efficient than ever in using data to align artists’ fan bases with companies’ target demographics, says Rich Yaffa, Universal Music Group’s executive vp of global brands: “When we partner with a brand, our goal is to make fans of our artists fans of their brands.”
Stephanie Miles, Wasserman Music’s head of music brand partnerships, says brands recently have become more willing to work on elaborate activations with artists. One act she declines to name spent months negotiating a fashion shoot and a live event to ensure both artist and brand emphasized the same regional market. “The days of receiving an opportunity that has been completely conceptualized by a brand, and the artist taking it as is, are long gone,” she says.
“Deals are definitely becoming more complicated and sophisticated,” adds Andrew Klein, managing director of AEG’s global partnerships. “It used to be [when] Coca-Cola’s coming out with a new product, [it would] just hand out the can [at concerts] and do a sampling program. They’re now trying to get a lot more return on investment. Yes, they want to sponsor the tour, but they also want to use the music for that artist in a campaign, use [their] name and likeness or tap into their social media.”
Will the good times in music branding continue? It’s hard to say, given President Donald Trump’s unsettling of the economy with layoffs, deportations, tariffs and threats of tariffs in the first weeks of his administration. “We’re starting to see a bit of a spend slowdown,” says Toni Wallace, partner and head of music brand strategy and partnerships at UTA. “There’s no question the demand and opportunity is there; it’s just ‘Let’s see how this first quarter goes.’ ”
It wasn’t long ago that artists, fearing claims of “selling out,” avoided collaborations with major corporations: In the late ’80s, after Pepsi landed Michael Jackson, Madonna and David Bowie in commercials and Whitney Houston sang a Diet Coke jingle, Neil Young responded with the scathing “This Note’s for You”: “Ain’t singing for Pepsi/Ain’t singing for Coke/I don’t sing for nobody/Makes me look like a joke.”
But things have changed: In 1999, Sting refashioned his “Desert Rose” music video into a Jaguar commercial; Bob Dylan licensed “Love Sick” to a Victoria’s Secret spot in 2004; an instrumental portion of Vampire Weekend’s 2019 “Harmony Hall” — an upbeat-sounding tune that nevertheless is about antisemitism — was used in a Choice Hotels TV plug; and last year, Megan Thee Stallion’s colorful 2024 Amazon Music ad included the original track “It’s Prime Day.”
“You had rockers who never wanted to be seen associated with anything: ‘It’s too commercialized,’ ” says Jeff Straughn, Primary Wave’s senior partner/chief brand officer. “Today, it’s ‘How can I sell it?’ ”
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Osheaga has a knack for booking budding superstars right as they blow up. Last year, it was Chappell Roan. This year, it was Doechii.
The Grammy-winning, Florida-born rapper took the stage on the first night of the Montreal music festival on Friday (Aug. 1), and it felt like a star-making performance. The Killers headlined the mainstage, but unlike Chappell Roan, who played for 40,000 people at 3:30 in the afternoon last year, Doechii did have the honor of closing out the festival on the secondary Forest Stage.
Her set was pushed back slightly to start at 10:10 p.m., meaning she was the final performer of the night before the noise curfew at 11 p.m. And for those who wanted to catch both acts, The Killers made it easy by playing their belt-along favorite “Mr. Brightside” as their first song and packing the first hour of their two-hour, 9:10 p.m. set with hits.
Doechii’s stage set was decked out to fit her Swamp Princess persona, covered in greenery and a large, elevated swampy platform for her to stand on. The crowd was packed in, so the fans stuck at the back still had a visual feast. “I look good from the nosebleeds,” she rapped from her 2025 hit “Nosebleeds,” and this show proved it.
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
For a full hour, Doechii kept the energy up. She rapped a mile a minute, all live with almost no reliance on a backing track. She showed off her full skill set, from pure hip-hop to sung R&B/pop hooks, and comedic banter to thought-out stagecraft. She brought unbridled charisma, taking time to dance and twerk and show off some vogue moves as well. She showed off a reverence for classic hip-hop, rapping over Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” and later screaming over a distorted guitar sample — almost veering towards nu-metal. She showed she can do it all.
The audience stayed captivated, rapping along and matching her energy throughout. It was Doechii’s first time in Canada, and you could tell she was impressed by the reaction. “As an artist, you can get so much hate and negativity,” she said. “Then you go out in real life and see your real fans.”
She took some time to thank her gay fans, her female fans, and the fans who brought their boyfriends. “If your boyfriend hates female rappers, then leave him immediately,” she said.
Seeing all the phones out, she seized her moment. “Ya’ll can’t be scared to stand up for what you believe in, you can’t be scared to say what matters,” she said. “Free Palestine.”
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
Doechii broke out her biggest hit, the Billboard Hot 100 top-10 charting “Anxiety,” and thanked all her fans for streaming it. The “Somebody That I Used To Know” sampling song is a bit of an outlier in her catalogue, but it’s a viral TikTok favourite, and she’s found a way to fit it perfectly into her set. After playing the song, she thanked Gotye for approving the sample.
The true highlight of the set was “Denial Is a River.” The song, which features Doechii rapping with her internal monologue, took on a whole new call-and-response dimension with fans chanting along to every word.
It felt like she was still just getting started when, midway through the next song, the beat cut out. “F— that, they cut me off!” she yelled. She put her thumbs down, inciting the crowd to boo, then threw her hands up. “Whatever,” she said, walking off the stage.
Unfortunately, Osheaga has a hard 11 p.m. noise curfew. It’s clear the next time she’s back, she’ll have to have a longer headliner-length set.
Doechii performs tonight (Aug. 2) at Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she’s teased a special guest. If Osheaga was anything to go by, her set will likely be all over social media soon.
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
Olivia Rodrigo was joined by surprise guest Weezer during her headlining set at Lollapalooza 2025.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the 22-year-old pop superstar made her debut on the second day of the Chicago music festival at Grant Park. Toward the end of her evening set, she surprised the crowd by inviting Weezer to join her on stage.
In a fan-captured video on TikTok, Rodrigo shared with the crowd that Weezer was the first band she ever saw live.
“You always remember your first concert. It’s a very, very special moment,” the “Drivers License” singer said. “I remember my first concert. It was a very memorable night. I watched this incredible band and I am so over the moon, because that incredible band is actually here tonight to play a few songs. Will you please say hello to Weezer?”
Weezer then joined Rodrigo for performances of their classic hits “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So,” both from the group’s 1994 self-titled album. She played guitar and harmonized alongside frontman Rivers Cuomo during the collaboration. Check out clips from the performances here and here on X.
This marked Weezer’s first Lollapalooza performance since they headlined alongside Widespread Panic in 2005.
This isn’t the first time Rodrigo has brought out surprise guests during her recent festival appearances. She recently invited David Byrne onstage at New York’s Governors Ball to perform Talking Heads’ 1983 hit “Burning Down the House,” and welcomed The Cure’s Robert Smith at this year’s Glastonbury Festival to perform “Friday I’m In Love” and “Just Like Heaven.”
During her Lolla set on Saturday, Rodrigo opened with “Obsessed” and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” and also performed hits including “Driver’s License,” “Traitor,” “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Love Is Embarrassing.”
The Chicago festival continues Saturday (Aug. 2) with headliners Rüfüs Du Sol and TWICE, followed by closers Sabrina Carpenter and A$AP Rocky on Sunday.
Kelly Osbourne is paying tribute to her father, Ozzy Osbourne, just days after his funeral.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the 40-year-old TV personality shared an NSFW photo on her Instagram Story in memory of the rock legend, who passed away on July 22 at the age of 76.
The outdoor image featured a beautiful display of purple flowers arranged to spell out “Ozzy F—ing Osbourne,” set beside a serene pond surrounded by a rolling hill and trees.
In a second post, Kelly shared a heartfelt clip from The Osbournes, the MTV reality series that aired from 2002 to 2005. The snippet shows Ozzy lying in bed with his wife, Sharon Osbourne, offering words of wisdom.
“Listen, all you got to worry about is getting through today,” the Black Sabbath frontman says. “That’s all you got to worry about.”
Just days earlier, Kelly attended her father’s funeral procession in his hometown of Birmingham, England, where fans flooded the streets to pay their respects. Sharon, along with Ozzy’s other children — Aimeé and Jack — laid flowers at the Black Sabbath Bridge, which had been covered with tributes from mourners.
Shortly after Ozzy’s passing, Kelly posted another emotional tribute to her Instagram Story on July 24. “I feel unhappy I am so sad,” she wrote. “I lost the best friend I ever had,” the Fashion Police alum added, along with a heartbroken emoji. Her words echoed lyrics from Black Sabbath’s ballad “Changes,” which she and her father released as a duet in 2003.
Ozzy Osbourne died at age 76, just weeks after performing his final concert. His family confirmed the news in a joint statement. “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” they wrote. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
Just a month before his death, Kelly had honored her dad on Father’s Day with an Instagram post that included a slideshow of Ozzy spending time with her young son, Sidney, whom she shares with fiancé Sid Wilson.
“Happy Father’s Day daddy,” she wrote at the time. “I love you more than anyone or anything in the world! I am so proud to be your daughter and Beyond honored to watch you be the best #Papa in the world to my son!”
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