I don't care if you're hungry

You can't sell the commercial rights to my favourite song! If you do, you're nothing more than a sellout, a corporate shill, lower than pond scum.

Isn't that what runs through your mind when you hear a song you love being used to sell cars, or shoes, or snacks? Damn those artists and labels for selling your youth, for corrupting that great song, for trivializing it by using it to sell something to you. Their cynicism in thinking a song you recognize and relate to will make you buy their product...the nerve.

But, you know, artists are people too. And they like to do people things, like eat and have shelter. So when the agency comes calling and offers to buy the rights so they can sell something, and they're willing to pay top dollar, who's to say that artistic principle trumps a growling stomach?

Even The Clash has done it. In 2002, the band incurred criticism when they sold the rights to Jaguar for a car advertisement. In an interview posted on his website, Strummer explained the reasons for the deal. "Yeah. I agreed to that. We get hundreds of requests for that and turn 'em all down. But I just thought Jaguar... yeah. If you're in a group and you make it together, then everybody deserves something. Especially twenty-odd years after the fact."

Here's a great article about the math and the emotion behind selling the rights to a song.

And here's one of the greatest bands in history performing one of their greatest songs.