STEVE VAN ZANDT joined Tim Mellors, vice chairman, worldwide chief creative director, Grey Group at the Talkin’ Music seminar yesterday. The E Street Band guitarist talked about the importance of brands in music: “Brands are now playing a significant role in the discovery of new talent and in a broader way, sponsorships enable tours, radio shows including my own and much more. In quite a lot of cases brands and agencies these days are doing what record labels used to do. And I believe that this relationship is only going to get bigger in the future.”
Norwegian band Cocktail Slippers, signed to Van Zandt’s label Wicked Cool, played two numbers at the event: “Someone gave Little Steven a CD of ours when he played in Oslo and he started playing on it his radio show,” guitarist Rocket Queen, said. “A year later he contacted us and asked us if we wanted to sign to Wicked Cool. Of course we said yes.”
