Since the inception of the music industry, artists have seen record labels profit off of them in a million ways:
Oh, you want an artist to appear in your commercial? $25,000
Do you need a feature for your next single? $50,000 AND another $50,000 for a video appearance.
If that isn’t enough, now that we’re in an era where just about everything an artist can generate revenue, those profit-split scenarios are ever-growing.
XYZ skincare brand wants ______ to post on Instagram? Negotiable.
A video game needs _______ likeness? Ask the label for permission. Then pay us $100,000 (of which the artist might see a fraction of that)
The thing is, when your audience is large enough, you can essentially take that influence and turn it into something that can generate money. That’s something we all know.
In the scenarios above, when an artist is tapped for their appearance, likeness, etc. they usually have to get permission from their record label and the label takes the lion’s share of the profit.
However, after decades of exploitation, we’re seeing artists try something new to get a bigger slice of the pie: Creative Collectives.
Knowing that they are the ones generating the interest behind the brand deals, movie appearances, synch licenses, etc. some artists have decided to try their hand at creating a full-blown creative agencies. And why not? It’s better than letting the label serve as a middle man.
With that said, here are a few artists who are jumping into the Creative Collective space and the pros & cons of doing so.
Kendrick Lamar & Dave Free Launch PG Lang
After his 2017 Album “DAMN.” Kendrick Lamar went radio silent. Fans were aching to hear new music, or even get a glimpse into what he’d been up to.
K. Dot finally said something in 2020.
In 2020, he dropped a mysterious trailer featuring fellow artists Baby Keem, Jorja Smith, and actress Yara Shahidi.
The title? pgLang ft. Kendrick Lamar | Baby Keem | Yara Shahidi
While fans were left to speculation, news clips started to confirm that K. Dot and his longtime creative partner Dave Free had formed a new creative collective, with an unknown purpose. What eventually became clear was that Dot would depart from his record label of 10+ years, Top Dawg Entertainment, to embark on the new journey.
In the years since, Dot & Dave Free have done collaborations with a ton of brands – the first of which being:
pgLang for Calvin Klein
This was the first full-scale creative campaign from the pgLang crew, and it saw creatives like Baby Keem riding around town in Calvin Klein in various social clips, and billboards. Dave Free, co-founder of pgLang said these films represent the “Language for the people that can’t find the words to express how they feel”
One of my favorite spots from the campaign can be seen below:
pgLang for Cash App
pgLang’s newest work is a part of Cash App’s new campaign “That’s Money.” In this pgLang produced spot featuring Kendrick Lamar, and Ray Dalio, we see Kendrick serving as a translator for his friend and Ray Dalio as they talk about different financial concepts. A very minimalist, and smart execution.
Pharrell// Mighty Dream
As things start to roll out from the pgLang crew, the marketing world recently given a bit of news from another highly respected creative in the hiphop space: Pharrell
His announcement came on the heels of…. and stated that he was launching his own creative advocacy agency Mighty Dream in partnership with the ad agency Edelman.
Mighty Dream’s goal would be to “exclusively develop products and creative solutions that solve some of the societal challenges that have impacted marginalized communities.”
Although no creative work has appeared from Pharrell’s agency as of yet, his first internal activation the “Mighty Dream Forum” happens in November in his home state of Virginia.
Check out the report below for the details, but in short, the event is expected to bring thousands of people to Norfolk, and employees of the festival range from middle schoolers to college students in VA. All in all, it’s community driven, and a very dope thing for the city.
There Are Pros To Working With Creative Collective
Reach: As we see in the pgLang work,the biggest pro of working with a creative-owned agency is that in the best scenario you get access to the creator, their audience.
Credibility: Revisiting Pharrell’s newest endeavor, his name instantly adds credibility to the agency. After all, he’s a creative in the truest sense of the word. While much hasn’t been said in the way of how involved he’ll be with Mighty Agency, at the very least the rest of the agency (and Edelman) get to use his name to attract potential work, and clients.
And… There’s a Con or Two as well
Limited Access: A downside of working with a creative-owned agency also could be that the creator is just the face of the company — they don’t expect to be involved in the day to day workings, and as a result you don’t get to work with the creator or feature them in your work.
(Possibly) Unstable Infrastructure: Because artists typically have a single team that handles every aspect of their careers they might choose to have their same core team handle the creative agency – without a dedicated team in place the business could deal with a ton of issues from missed business, to slow turnaround.
What It Means for The Future?
Overall, the rise of creative collectives signifies that celebs taking more control of their influence. In the past artists needed labels to connect them to opportunities – they were the ones with the influence, the relationships, and essentially functioned as gatekeepers.
However, with the advent of social media musicians have become a part of class of creators that now identify as media companies.
But… What exactly does that mean going forward? Well, it means that these “Media-company” style artists are going to eventually pivot into “boutique firm” artists. I respect it, the game is the game and artists deserve as much of the pie as they can get.
Peace.