Brief - The Hustle

Need a new winter coat? Try buying it from a music video.

Written by Michael Waters | Sep 16, 2020 9:08:29 AM

Has a favorite music artist’s outfit ever made you look down at your schlubby T-shirt and sigh?

Good news: Now you can channel that shame into shopping.

At the end of July, a startup called droppTV launched a new way to buy clothes directly from music videos — all without exiting the stream.

Made-for-shopping music videos

Through droppTV’s website, you can cop music-video outfits as soon as they appear. And there’s no shortage of choices: the platform says that it has 2k+ musician partners.

If history tells us anything, the concept has some legs. Back in 2012, Iggy Azalea raked in $100k in under 2 weeks with an interactive video that allowed viewers to hover over outfits and buy them directly from the retailer.

Though YouTube is where the vast majority of people watch music videos, the platform doesn’t support interactive shopping. So, efforts like this hinge on viewers clicking out to external sites.

Is ‘shoppable TV’ really becoming a thing?

The trends-watching firm PSFK thinks that droppTV is one of several retail-tech companies headed for a breakout moment this holiday shopping season.

Elsewhere, the integration of commerce and entertainment is growing:

  • On Amazon’s fashion competition show, “Making The Cut,” the winning looks appear on screen with an Amazon “buy” button. #TakeOurMoney
  • On Teleport, a TikTok-like platform that lets randos show off their outfits, users get a cut of the profits on clothing sold to followers.