TORONTO - The Toronto band the Knifings are pretty much a complete unknown in the music world and yet somehow -- no one really knows how -- one of their songs recently appeared on one of the biggest shows on TV, "Entourage."
Having their music aired on the show puts them in the same company as the likes of the Cure, Radiohead, Snoop Dogg and U2, and yet the band has no record label, no music videos and no previous mainstream exposure to speak of.
"We're just trying to fathom how we fit into that picture," says drummer Dave Penny. "It's crazy."
Their story is a longshot, but increasingly musicians are seeking out -- and being sought out for -- licensing deals to get their music heard in different ways.
With radio listeners tuning out and music videos becoming increasingly irrelevant, musicians are selling their songs for use on TV shows, movies, video games and commercials.
The Knifings have a MySpace page and a few other websites where their music is posted online, but they still don't know exactly how Hollywood found them.
They got a dubious email from someone claiming to be associated with HBO's "Entourage," who wanted to pay the band "thousands" of dollars to use a small snippet of their song "Vicodin" for an episode.
"Initially we weren't even sure if it was a prank, because it seemed pretty out there for sure. With the minimal exposure we've had, to have something that big land was definitely kind of surprising," Penny said.
"Aside from the fact there are millions of other bands out there, we're not even signed to a label yet, so that's the even crazier thing."
Having the song on the show hasn't resulted in an explosion in the band's popularity, but they did get more exposure than ever before and made "a lot more money than we've ever seen for anything we've done," Penny said.
Another recent example of Canadian music being licensed for prime-time TV was when the hit show "The Office" used Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway."
Cochrane said he had no idea that his wife had licensed the song for "The Office" -- and had never seen the show -- until he started getting flooded with emails and phone calls from people after the episode aired.
"It was funny, I'm getting all these emails from people saying, `They were singing your song on "The Office,"' but I thought they meant `in the office,' because that song is one of those songs people sing," he recalled.
"It was a good thing to do. All of a sudden I now realize it's a big show, and a funny show apparently."
Even appearing on a lower-profile show can pay significant dividends, said Stephen Ramsay of the Montreal band Young Galaxy, which had a song on "Army Wives" on the U.S. Lifetime network last year.
The band has had videos added to regular rotation on MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic but found the bounce they got out of being on "Army Wives" far surpassed the value of having their songs heard the old-fashioned way.
"A show in America can get cancelled for having two million people watch it a week, and yet to a musician who makes the kind of music we make, who has only 10,000 friends on MySpace, the idea of a song being played before millions at one time is just astonishing," Ramsay said.
"There were certainly a few hundred more people coming by the website to check us out, people discussing us online and sending emails saying, `I'd never heard of you, now I've just bought your record' ... so you definitely see it instantly."
The payday for licensing the song also came a lot quicker than the small cheques they received for having their songs played on radio or their videos aired.
"It's a substantial amount of money and it can be made a lot quicker than airplay royalties," Ramsay said.
"Given that people don't really sell as many records -- not even remotely as many as they used to -- more and more people are putting the emphasis on relationships with these kinds of companies."
But some bands still have an aversion to the idea of having their songs associated with a TV show or movie -- for example, the Weakerthans, who licensed their song "Aside" for the hit movie "The Wedding Crashers."
"That was the one we tested the waters with, and it went OK, but I have some mixed feelings about it," said singer John Samson.
"It's certainly a massive grey sea there of ethics. I certainly don't blame people who have done it because the money is enticing -- and as you know musicians are increasingly finding it difficult to find ways to make money -- so on that hand I think it's one of those things that's available to struggling musicians."
The most difficult licensing deal for some musicians to accept is selling a song for a commercial, but even that's becoming less taboo.
Feist famously lent "1234" to Apple for an iPod commercial, and Arcade Fire's "My Body Is a Cage" is the background music in an ad for the new Brad Pitt movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
Broken Social Scene has also licensed a song for a Cadbury commercial, and Crystal Castles have a song in a Toshiba ad.
"Feist would've never had a hit without the iPod commercial," said Terry McBride of Nettwerk Music Group, who counsels his artists to consider licensing.
When Sum 41 had their song "With Me" appear in an episode of "Gossip Girls," it translated into 180,000 digital sales of the single, McBride said, adding that a music video would not have had the same payoff.
"Music videos haven't had power now for a few years, and I question whether they're even worth the cost nowadays."
Ramsay said he has no ethical qualms about music appearing in commercials.
"For me growing up, had a band like the Smiths or some obscure band that I loved from England been on a commercial for like laundry detergent, I wouldn't have been mad, I would've been thrilled," Ramsay said.
"I would've been so excited to hear the music I love sort of being put out into the world somehow.
"And it's sort of a validation of your taste."
