Power of artist and brand partnerships.
Funding the arts and fueling sales.
Artists have always seemed to struggle finding ways to generate revenue doing what they love — Often dependent upon royalties, tour profits and other revenue streams the shift into the digital age has really affected artists’ sustainability.
Digital technologies such as Torrenting, YouTube, Netflix and Spotify have drastically changed how people consume content. In turn, creators are receiving far less compensation for fans listening or watching their content than in years past.
The days of buying a CD or DVD are dying, and consumers now only pay a nominal fee or nothing at all to stream movies, their favorite shows and music, which is a trend I can’t see reversing itself. It’s just not feasible for creators to continue doing what they love under old business models.
In 2013 digital track sales fell 5.7% from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion units while digital album sales fell 0.1% to 117.6 million units from the previous year’s total of 117.7 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
To adapt, creators are forming direct-to-fan relationships which provide much better margins on the sale of their music, concerts, shows, etc. while also keeping their fans engaged. But there remains a problem, a large perception gap held by most consumers who expect nearly every type of content on the web to be free. How will this be overcome? Businesses and brands will begin to partner closely with creators/artists with desirable audiences brands want to reach.It’s a win-win, and I believe we will see these relationships evolve to become one of the most sustainable and reliable ways for creators to generate revenue and still deliver quality products to fans.
I mention businesses as brands because there has to be “life” to the products and services they offer and the more human the brand the better so people can welcome those goods into their lives the way they do artists’ creations. I call them partnerships as both parties are coming together to provide something to the fans–and potential customers—that did not exist before. Aristotle has an amazing quote that summaries this synergy well:. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
This arrangement is not new, it’s just new to artists. Television and radio have had deals for decades with sports teams and other entertainers to supplement their revenue by selling those audience segments to brands. But now, more than ever, we are seeing the damage the digitization of content is doing to creators of music, films and other visual arts. If we’re going to preserve these creators’ ability to continue to make a living, we need to find creative solutions to stop the downward spiral of “free content.”
Norms will arise as both fans and consumers ultimately will decide whether the art was compromised in the name of business or not — authenticity will become more and more important. Does it really make sense that rappers name drop brands if they are not getting paid by the brand? Or a YouTube artist endorsing a fashion company? Or a short film using a certain vehicle in it?
These sort of partnerships to only be a sustainable solution if the relation between artist and brand is authentic and genuine. For a genuine partnership to take place both the fans of the artist and targeted brand demographic should be demographically relatedSharing the same values and presenting the brand through art becomes a very important piece of this solution.
Great examples do exist where artists and brands have come together. Some are so well executed that viewers are oblivious — partnerships like those that Beats by Dre has accomplished with record labels, artists, film makers, sports players etc. Dr. Dre & Jimmy Lovine made their product standout and represent a lifestyle that their partnerships helped shape. A lifestyle that became tangible as a result of partnerships, Other well-loved companies like Redbull, GoPro, Vans and Apple are making it work, too.
We saw an influx of these sort partnerships at this year’s SXSW 2014. Mountain Dew and Complex came together to put together a music venue and location under the brand “Green Label ” It was a subtle way to give the Mountain Dew products a receptive audience without diluting any of the artists. These unions have to be well-conceived. If a partnership has no substance or authenticity behind it both the fans and consumers take notice, which hurts both. Just ask Frito Lay and Lady Gaga after they tried to team up at SXSW 2014.
Over the next few years I believe we’ll see fewer and fewer of the ill-fit partnerships as the “native” artist/brand partnership model matures. Ultimately, we’ll all benefit — brands will connect better with their target demographics and artists, without which we’d all suffer, will still get to do what they love to do most, create. Look for these trends to evolve into the new marketing norms.
