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Watching the NCAA Tournament this past weekend was a music lover’s delight. Two of the artists we have been championing in recent weeks—Tame Impala (Modular) and Jake Bugg (Mercury/IDJ)—saw big exposure with corresponding sales response.

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Licensing songs to television for play in shows—and even more importantly as hallmarks of product advertising campaigns—is one of the key ways that new acts are breaking today. As radio is being driven by a combination of FAMILIARITY and iTUNES instant reaction sell-through, product campaigns have helped stoke the fire for the incredible Phoenix (Glassnote) breakthrough from the Cadillac campaign, and for The Lumineers (Dualtone), whose two smashes, “Ho Hey” and “Stubborn Love,” were seemingly synched everywhere. Now three of our best new artists are reaping the benefits of major advertising rollouts.

Watching the NCAA Tournament this past weekend was a music lover’s delight. Two of the artists we have been championing in recent weeks—Tame Impala (Modular) and Jake Bugg (Mercury/IDJ)—saw big exposure with corresponding sales response.

Along with the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, the weekend’s big winner was Tame Impala, whose single, “Elephant,” just released to radio this week, was highlighted in the new BlackBerry commercial, which was seemingly aired during every break. It was fun to follow iTunes this weekend as the single and the album Lonerism (which has already sold approximately 100k units) kept climbing the charts as a result of the wall-to-wall exposure.

Tame Impala is the cool, hipster-plus rock sound that Modern Rock radio has been begging for in recent months to counterbalance all the young girl first-appeal songs that have been dominating the marketplace. “Elephant” was also featured in the season finale of HBO’s Girls. With the combination of Tame Impala and the red-hot new Thirty Seconds to Mars single, Alternative programmers will now have the male-appeal rockers that will be accepted across all demographic lines.

It was also a happy surprise that the Gatorade team found Jake Bugg’s “Lightning Bolt” to underscore their latest campaign. And while this hasn’t been the lead single to date (another of our faves from this Euro sensation,” Two Fingers,” has been leading the charge in the U.S.), we would assume the strong sales reaction this weekend will lead to a switchover in the near future. Bugg’s success overseas is definitely being noted in the music supervisor world, as he, like Tame Impala, had a featured song in the season ending episode of Girls.

And don’t forget about the effect of licensing on Columbia’s Passion Pit. Their second hit, “Carried Away,” is being buoyed and readied for a radio crossover to Top 40 by the latest Tropicana campaign. That is, if their first hit, “Take a Walk,” featured in a Taco Bell campaign, ever gets out of the way.

Also watch out for American Authors (Mercury/IDJ), whose “Best Day of My Life” is getting great exposure in Lowe’s commercials, and Alexi Murdoch (Nettwerk), whose “All My Days” can be heard in a new series of spots for Sprint.

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