Johnson fell short of inflated expectations (selling only a few million copies), the band fell out of favor with Atlantic Records, which moved it from the "hot" to the "not" list. By previous standards, Hootie was still successful, even though the band suffered the marketing faux pas of brand overexpo- sure and unrealistic sales expectations. The band fell victim to what Robert Summer, chairman of World Theater, Inc., and former executive vice president of Sony Music Entertainment, describes as the changing economics of the music industry. "The heightened pressure to make more money in less time has affected the view of longevity in the business," he says. "The abil- ity to invest the time and the funds required to nurture artists, help them mature, and build careers over time is eroded by the fact that the industry is owned by conglomerates with near-term financial pressures. That pressure can also be distorting to the artist and the artistic process." This results in an industry laden with overnight suc- cess stories that are overmarketed in the short term and underdevel- oped for the long term. Part of the problem is that some marketers fail to identify which products or brands are flash-in-the-pan successes and which may start slowly but are likely to be adopted by a culture in the long run. In a market driven by quarterly results, long-term growth, market- ing, and branding strategies that require intensive capital, labor, and resource investments have in many instances been sacrificed for short-term strategies that quickly impact the numbers.       Fro m M arketing Campaign to Br and E quity   Todays music world has become so marketing-driven and image- focused that the formula for success almost mirrors an algebraic equation into which various artists can be inserted to represent the unknown variables. The formula seems heavy on PR, standout clothing, eye appeal, and dance talent, and short on songwriting and singing ability, which has changed the type of artists that have recently racked up commercially successful hits. "Today, the music industry is very song-driven," says Lake. "People     may connect with a particular song, but they often dont know who sings it, let alone the names of the front men of the group, which is different from bands of the past." Rather than focus on which bands have the talent to impact the music world in the long run and build large fan bases into the future, the industry focuses on the songs that can hit number one today. If the artist behind the song can release several hits over a few years, thats icing on the proverbial cake. What is missing from the formula is a focus on emotional connec- tion and the long-term goal of cultural adoption. Since marketers hold tight rein on who will actually break into the music industry, they often market artists who fit the mold rather than break it. As a result, seemingly less than stellar artists achieve success, albeit con- trived and most likely short-lived. In an effort to find the next hit and