Sounds like endorsement to me – the manufacturer paying an artist to endorse their product. It’s just like websites selling their audiences to advertisers, but in this case it’s an artist selling the goodwill of their audience, and their own reputation.

Either the artist really does endorse the product, and may not suffer significantly, or they can be recognised to have ‘sold out’ and their reputation diminishes.

And what of unknown/lesser known artists? Is there the same attraction to a manufacturer in doing a deal with them?