In the House episode Emancipation (season five), Alexi Murdoch, gave the series’ viewers a taste of his limited release EP album Towards the Sun with a sample of the song ‘Through the Dark’. The CD has yet to be officially released, but the buzz had already grown to the point where minutes after the episode aired, fans had already uploaded a clip of the scene featuring Murdoch’s music on to YouTube. Murdoch is no stranger to lending his music to TV shows. Time Without Consequence, his first LP, was one of the most licensed new albums in recent years, and has appeared in other high rated series like Prison Break, The O.C., Brothers and Sisters, Scrubs and One Tree Hill. In the old days bands would send their samples and singles to radio stations and hope for air play. But with TV’s massive reach and undeniable influence on pop culture, coupled with the near-immediate availability of songs due to online stores such as iTunes, more artists are using the medium to promote their music. Hit shows such as ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy are popular venues for both new artists and established names. R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and Coldplay’s Chris Martin collaborated to record a cover of Joseph Arthur’s ‘In the Sun’, which premiered in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in 2006. The proceeds of the album, made exclusively for download on Apple’s iTunes web store, went to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. The iTunes model of selling songs instead of just the entire album, has done much to fuel sales of popular music. American Idol creator Simon Fuller marked a digital music milestone earlier this year when Idol finalists’ songs were made available digitally the day after they performed it on the show. More than 160 million copies of the songs were downloaded during the series. Fuller teamed up Idol with iTunes at the music store’s 2003 launch, spotting its potential to capitalize on the TV singing show’s appeal and the tens of millions of fans who watch it weekly. “I felt there was a real synergy with what I do, which is launching new artists and TV shows, and what iTunes does, which is to sell music in an immediate and interactive way,” Fuller said. The artists Fuller represents, which include Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, have also sold more than 100 million CDs in North America over the last 10 years, according to his artist management company 19 Entertainment. In a previous interview with Television Asia Plus, Disney-ABC International TV’s Hong-Kong executive marketing director Lily Ng, said iTunes sales for The Fray’s then-unreleased single ‘How to Save a Life’ went up immediately in the same night it premiered in the second season finale of Grey’s Anatomy in the U.S. “The band went on to sell more than 100,000 copies of that album on iTunes, making it the first bestselling album ever on Apple’s music service by the end of the summer,” she added. The song was also a top 5 single in the U.S. Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The Fray’s songs have since appeared on 90210, Scrubs, Ugly Betty and The Vampire Diaries, among other shows. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, who recommended ‘How to Save a Life’ to the directors of Grey’s Anatomy, has helped bring indie bands such as Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Travis, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Tegan and Sara, Imogen Heap and Modest Mouse into mainstream popularity. Patsavas’ credits also include Gossip Girl, The O.C., Mad Men, Roswell, Supernatural and Chuck, among other shows. For the fashion-obsessed Gossip Girl, Patsavas incorporated more mainstream acts such as Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga with rising indie bands such as The Ting Tings, The National and Vampire Weekend. Her eclectic taste in music and her ability to match the right song to the right scene has earned her both Emmy and Grammy nominations and – more importantly to record companies – has helped propel several bands to the top of the digital sales charts. Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’, which was also produced for Grey’s Anatomy, made it onto iTunes’ top 10 list after it aired during the closing moments of the series’ season three finale. Patsavas, who was also responsible for selecting songs that went into the chart-topping Twilight compilation album, has said in interviews that while good music can’t do much to save a lacklustre script or bad acting, “that special alchemy of a really well done scene and a perfectly chosen song is really memorable.” While Patsavas’ latest Twilight saga album rose fast to the top of the Billboard charts this summer, it was soon eclipsed by the soundtrack from the hit TV show Glee, with the album Glee: Journey to Regionals, which features covers of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. As of press time the album has remained on the Billboard Top 200 charts for more than 23 weeks. Glee, which has produced three soundtracks and two EPs so far, also boasted a cumulative 13 million song downloads. According to a report by Nielsen Soundscan, by summer this year, the five albums had sold a combined 1.8 million copies. So what makes TV soundtrack albums such as Glee sell? “The complete album package is irresistible to Glee fans because it is nothing but hits,” Keith Caulfield, Billboard senior chart manager and analyst told media. “You see the songs performed and you know you will like the album as opposed to buying a new album where the consumer is taking a chance with their dollar on something they might not entirely enjoy.” And with over 10 million viewers per episode in the U.S. alone, artists whose songs are covered on Glee benefit from the resurgence in popularity as well. Glee has continued the download-driven Journey revival with the hit cover of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’, introducing the band to a younger fan base. The song had also been used in the final scene of HBO’s The Sopranos series in 2007, reacquainting it with older fans and helping to resurrect the song to the UK Singles Chart in 2009. It crept up the iTunes top-10 list after The Sopranos finale aired in the U.S. when, during the same week, it was on Family Guy and Laguna Beach. The exposure and royalties artists gain from having their songs featured on Glee have made the show an attractive spot, especially for those who have seen better days on the Billboard charts. Earlier this year the cast of Glee put on a tribute episode called ‘The Power of Madonna’, which gained 12.98 million viewers in the U.S. The iconic pop star, who granted the show the rights to her entire catalogue of music in 2009, told media the episode was “brilliant on every level”.