Companies will invest almost $1.1 billion into various music-related sponsorship deals this year, up almost 4 percent from 2008.

"Corporate marketers over the past couple of years have largely focused on Coachella and other big-time music festivals over national tours," Chipps observes. "We're starting to see more interest in national tours again, as evidenced by JCPenney's sponsorship of Rascal Flatts, Virgin Mobile's sponsorship of Britney Spears, etc."