Why These Musicians Refused to Sell Their Songs to Advertisers

A beautiful problem followed this Icelandic band around: advertisers wanted the feeling of the music even when they could not have the music itself. Sigur Rós had allowed songs to appear in films, television, charity projects, and creative contexts, but the band made clear that product advertising was different. They said no often enough that a strange pattern began to appear, with commercials later surfacing that sounded suspiciously close to their sweeping, wordless, glacial style.