The Odd Future Approach: Give Away The Music, Sell Awesome Stuff
from the ofwgkta dept
The BBC has a great short video feature looking at Odd Future, the massively popular (and equally controversial) rap collective, and their merchandise-focused approach to the music business. Odd Future has always been an interesting case study in music: their graphic content prevents them from getting much radio play, their career was started and built online, and they give away all their music (20 albums worth, at this point) for free. But they have been making money since the beginning by selling homemade merchandise directly to fans, offering lots of limited edition shirts and one-off products. Now they've combined that approach with their highly successful tours, by launching pop-up merch shops in every city before the show. They do meet-and-greets at the shop where they take photos and sign autographs. The fans love it—they were in Toronto recently, and the line for the pop-up shop stretched several blocks, and according to the BBC they are moving unique hand-made t-shirts at £100 each.
Tour merchandise has always been popular, but Odd Future takes it to the next level (though they're not the only artists to experiment with this kind of thing). Rather than just selling cheap t-shirts at a massive markup from a table in the venue, they turn it into a whole companion experience to the show, and offer merch that's actually one-of-a-kind. The Odd Future kids are naturals at connecting with fans, and this shows how they also combine that with a bundle of different reasons to buy. Well-known for shirking the establishment in every way imaginable, Odd Future doesn't seem to care too much about record sales, and they definitely don't care about piracy or competing with free—they've found a new way of doing things, and it's working.
Note: let's not turn this into a debate about the morality/merits of Odd Future's music. For that, head over to Tim Cushing's excellent post on Lost In The Sound.
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Filed Under: free, hip-hop, merchandise, odd future, pop-up shop
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Nice and all but
Also I don't really like their music, but I'm just not a big rap fan.
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My point was that to dismiss someone as stupid because they'd pay 100 for a shirt is a fatuously elitist view. I wouldn't pay 80M for a painting I totally loved (even if I had it) and yet I accept that people do and that's their choice. Clearly the people buying the shirts think they're getting some sort of value out of it so who's to say they are wrong?
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And I'm worried about someone who would spend $10 on a CD that cost
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Odd Future is a joke and for all their manufactured for appearances "success" they can barely break into the top 150 when they release a project. There is so much behind the scenes crap that in truth the only reason those kids are messed with by most influential media outlets (Billboard, MTV, etc) is because of politics.
Also - Pop Up's are pretty common in hip hop, especially in NYC. They're just copying other artists - specifically major label Interscope artists who jacked the idea from indie artists who truly deserve the credit, but will never get it.
The only thing good to come out of Odd Future is Frank Ocean was taken off of the Def Jam shelf, He was already signed and actually has talent. The rest of their shelf life expired quite some time ago.
There are several urban artists who are doing pretty cool things business model wise that deserve praise and shine. Odd Future isn't one of them. Giving them credit is sort of a slap in the face to all the legit artists they stole from.
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I don't know anything about them that wasn't in the video above, so forgive my ignorance, but... the top 150 what, exactly? Clearly you can't be referring to album sales, because that's the point of the article. So what is it?
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That the Beeb chose to do a story on them doesn't mean they thought the idea up just that, as far as the Beeb is concerned, they do it better. So well, in fact, that they literally give their music away and make their income from pop ups and shows and merchandise.
You're right when you say that there are several urban artists doing similar and cool things with new business models that aren't getting the coverage they deserve.
You're wrong when you think you get to declare them illegitimate just because you don't like their music. Nor do you, or I, get to decide who the legit artist is. Thank God.
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Response to: Meh on Apr 13th, 2012 @ 7:24pm
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Re: Response to: Meh on Apr 13th, 2012 @ 7:24pm
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They Have Got It
Big publishers, big-3 record labels and big-6 movie studios are still clueless. Does bigness cause stupidity? Or is it that these few companies are all being run by corporate psychopaths? Psychopaths are people with no conscience. It is a brain defect. They do not care who they hurt. We should check these people against the standard indicators for psychopathy.
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Things work when they are unique and "first". When everyone does them, they are no longer unique, and then no longer really valid. This is a great example of an idea that works out well until many other people do it, then it sucks.
Further, let's be clear here - the fans really want the music, not the crappy t-shirt. If you forget that, you miss the entire relationship.
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Ah, so the traditional model of record labels and music sales is no longer valid. Good call.
Further, let's be clear here - the fans really want the music, not the crappy t-shirt. If you forget that, you miss the entire relationship.
Wow, you really do not understand fandom. The kids who line up and yell and scream for Odd Future shows want a LOT more than the music. They are in love with the people. Odd Future's career is built on great music PLUS really genuine personas that piss off a lot of people but totally charm a lot of others. The fans want to be involved, they want to meet them and take home a piece of them. The fact that you don't understand that kind of fandom explains why you are so uncreative when it comes to thinking about music business models.
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Marcus, as always, you are an idiot. The model of the record label works because it doesn't depend on "first". It's a fine crafted system that works to deliver quality content to the fans that want it. They don't have to rely on the gimmick of the week to make a living.
"Wow, you really do not understand fandom. The kids who line up and yell and scream for Odd Future shows want a LOT more than the music."
I cannot understand how you can be such an idiot and still be able to type. Seriously. Marcus, without the music, which is the core, nothing else happens. Nobody is going to line up around the block for an overpriced t-shirt from someone who has no name does nothing, and adds nothing. How many people will pay you $100 for a t-shirt? NOBODY.
The music is the relationship, it's what matters. The t-shirt is symbolic at best, not the be all and end all by itself. The fans are there for the music, everything else derives from that. The tail does not wag the dog.
Can you perhaps add something less stupid next time?
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Again, your myopia holds you back. You gotta work on that.
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Selling t-shirts, no matter how "unique", at a high price is just another way of ripping off the "real fans" so that the freeloaders (like yourself) can enjoy the real product for nothing. They want music - why the heck don't we have a commercial system that allows the fans to purchase what they really want?
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But the cost of copying the music is also pennies AND the people realise this too so what is your point?
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If the fans want to purchase the music - as opposed to copies of the music then there is kickstarter - which enables them to fund new music.
You are confusing "the music" with "copies of the music"
Copies of the music cost pennies. Via kickstarter or similar fans can actually fund the music - rather than paying exhorbitant prices for copies of old stuff.
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Where I have a problem, and where I see a disconnect is that much of the chanting here is to f**k the **aas, get rid of the labels, get rid of their distribution system, get rid of their business model, and in it's place... t-shirts? I am trying to figure out why you trash a multi billion dollar business in order to make a few thousand bucks on t-shirts.
It's a real disconnect that nobody is really talking about unified models that would allow the "new" music business to move forward with direction, and rather that it's all about cool one offs. There really seems to be a lack of a true cohesive model for moving forward. Right now it seems to more like stumbling around in a dark crowded room with a sharp knife in your hand.
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And if the **as didn't treat the public with the disrespect that they do maybe the attitude toward them might be different.
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That's what you see and yes there's some of that, perhaps even an amount equal to 1/2 the pointless invective that usually comes from the "other side". Both are annoying. At least the arguments of Mike et al show consistent internal logic. It's extremely rare there's anything similar the other way. case in point. I'm going to assume you can't really be obtuse enough to assume that's the argument and yet rather than debating merits you try and belittle at every turn. And again that's what you read into it. Me I see a change in technology that means that things cannot possibly keep working the same way and that the same or bigger industry will adapt to new ways but with likely less money for each individual company since there will naturally be more players to share the enlarged pot.
Again, your own failing. There is no "magic model" that will suddenly replace one model with something that works for everyone. IN fact there never was. What's left of the models you revere so are the biggest sharks in the tank. How many "big" studios and "major" labels are there now compared to, say, the 60's and 70's? Well given the **AA propensity for trying to kill any competition, if I had to use a nebulously scary-sounding metaphor like that I'd characterize it more as "carefully feeling around a dark room where everyone else has a knife but you."
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Because T shirts now have more scarcity value than recordings!
Why can't you get it into your head that selling copies of the music is NOT selling the music.
I trashed your arguments above - which is why you never bothered to reply to me.
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Whilst music has been going for centuries.
The thing is that the marginal cost of producing copies of a recording is now essentially zero. It follows that taxing the process to fund fixed costs is not sustainable (would you like to pay an infinite tax rate on your income or purchases?).
Actually the simple unified model you ask for is there. It is called fund and release. It uses upfront funding direct from the public. The internet makes this relatively easy via sites like kickstarter.
It will take a while to educate the public about this - in the meantime t shirts etc will form a useful stop gap.
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You might think it's a rip-off, but it seems like the people shelling out the money don't. Me, I think shelling out around $20 to see something as egregiously bad as Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is a rip-off, but there are those who rave about that too so I'm guessing they wouldn't feel the same way.
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If selling T shirts at inflated prices is a rip off then why isn't selling CDs or downloads at even more inflated prices a rip off?
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So why do the stars get greeted with hordes of screaming fans at the airport when they are not going to sing/play a note??
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Of course you are right here - twas ever thus - which is why genuine innovators need have no fear of those who merely copy!
Welcome to our side of the argument!
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Damn, I forget...
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Hope that helps.
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Simple!
Effective!
PROFITABLE!
Hook them digitally (which is BOTH cheap and easy to do), and rake the dough in!
Talk about a successful business model!
Another example is sci-fi/fantasy, especially STAR WARS.
There's only six movies and several tv and radio series, all of which sell well in the CD/DVD/BluRay market.
But the REAL cash cow for LucasFIlm is the MERCHANDISE...lightsabers, Princess Leia in Slave Garb figurines (I have three different ones...ALL licensed merchandise), etc., which CAN'T be digitally-pirated!
While "regular" pirating of inferior-quality duplicates has always been an ongoing problem ever since collectibles became a major market, fans prefer spending money for high-quality stuff...where possible!
Big Media...take note!
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OFWGKTA
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Harmonica
http://soundcloud.com/jackgreen007
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are they in the music business?
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Re: are they in the music business?
Just as Google and free to air televion are not both merely in the advertising business and University researchers are in the research business not in the grant application business (although I do sometimes wonder about that one)
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Great!
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