Babe Rainbow brighten their year during COVID, land syncs with Apple, Nissan and Netflix

With touring stuck in the basement, Babe Rainbow is taking the alternative elevator.

The psychedelic rock group’s colourful career has been blowing up in recent years. Pan-European treks, top festival slots at home, and a chart-topping album release have told part of the story.

When COVID put a break on all-things live, Babe Rainbow turned to syncs.

Thanks to a slew of ad placements with blue-chip companies, from Apple to Nissan, the four-piece has kept the motor running during the pandemic.

Babe Rainbow “have a big sync appeal, and way beyond the obvious songs and sounds that work for surf, skate, snow world that comes naturally to the band,” explains Parker + Mr French’s Todd Wagstaff, who guides the band’s career.

A case in point. Last Monday, the cosmic dudes’ track ‘Morning Song’ accompanied a new commercial for Allstate Insurance, released to network TV in the U.S. and engineered by the Droga 5 agency in New York.

Watch Allstate Insurance’s ad campaign featuring ‘Morning Song’:

https://youtu.be/IHHpC7LTLRM

Recent commercial syncs for the group have also included campaigns for Apple and Nissan in the U.S., and Byron Bay Brewery in Australia.

The North Coast outfit also placed songs on Netflix, the global go-to entertainment platform which bagged more than 25 million new subscribers in the months to June, and is closing in on 200 million total subscribers worldwide.

Babe Rainbow’s eco-eruptions have appeared in animated Netflix exclusive ‘The the Willoughbys,’ and TV series ‘In The Dark’ and ‘Better Things’.

“It’s the authentic sense of community that the band emanates from being legitimate counter-culture farmers, surfers and creatives,” notes Wagstaff.

Before COVID closed borders and ruined the live circuit, Babe Rainbow were at the tipping point.

Angus, Jack, Elliot and Louise’s dreamy 2019 single ‘Something New’ picked up key editorial markers with Spotify NMF and Apple Best of the Week and is the band’s fastest ever streaming video (it’s now at 581,000-plus views).

U.S. college radio got on board, and Babe Rainbow went Top 20 on the NACC national single chart.

Their second LP Today (via King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s FLIGHTLESS Records) went to No. 1 on the ARIA Vinyl Albums Chart in November 2019, and opened in the Top 10 on AIR’s Independent Label Albums Chart.

Scores of live dates followed on both sides of the Atlantic and closer to home.

A solid slot on the sold-out 2020 Splendour in the Grass bill was slated, and then stolen by the pandemic.

With the explosion of streaming video platforms, sync licensing has emerged as one of music industry’s fastest growing spaces.

A single placement can generate thousands of dollars for the artist (at the top end, the producers of Mad Men reportedly reportedly coughed up $250,000 for the user of a master recording of The Beatles’s “Tomorrow Never Knows”).

Babe Rainbow have “huge appeal for the burgeoning experiencial economy,” Wagstaff continues, “but it is their sense of optimism and ability to reinforce connectivity that seems to create a wide appeal for their music through financial service, technology and telecommunication industries. Not to overlook their image and lifestyle is a beacon for the conscious living umbrella of health, exercise and nutrition.”

Swot up on the sync sector here and here.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.