I hate commercials! Wait, what's that song?

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You're on the edge of your seat waiting for Ryan Seacrest to tell you who isn't going to be your next American Idol...right after these messages. Argh! But next thing you know, you're singing along with the commercial and wondering "Who's that band? What's this song?"  In walks findthatsong. They do nothing but keep up with all the songs played in commercials. You can search their site by keyword if you know the song or band or product, but they also have a nifty little dropdown menu with the companies listed so you can click right through to someone like Apple or Volkswagen and see their most recent commercials and the songs attached. You'll see the artist, name of the song, a video of the commercial and a link right to iTunes to purchase the song if you like it. If you're my age (*cough* over 30? way over 30? *cough*), you probably remember feeling like a band "sold out" if they lent their song to a corporation (a.k.a. "the man"), but more recently,  commercials have become a much more viable way for bands to get their music out there. Large radio stations have small, limited playlists so smaller bands have limited venues for promoting their music. And while you can fire up your Shazam app for this service as well, I find that I don't always have my smartphone ready in time to snag something from a 30 second commercial. So, while you may not feel like the coolest kid on the block "discovering" new music from commercials, it's a pretty great service. I've recently fallen in love with the song Lowe's uses for their new service to store your paint colors: