Trapital by Dan Runcie

hip-hop business + strategy


“You tell the true stories. Not just the end product, but how you get to the end product. Your point of view on it is dope.”

Steve Stoute, CEO of UnitedMasters and Translation

 

How Kendrick Lamar Plays the Long Game

The Compton rapper invests his money in real estate and partners with companies to amplify causes he cares about.

Kendrick Lamar (via Andrés Tardio)

In the fast-paced business of hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar moves like an old, reserved soul. The 32-year-old is all about his real estate. Meanwhile, his peers pad their portfolios with angel investments, brand endorsements, and upstart music festivals. Kendrick’s approach is a borderline narrative violation given his superstar status, but it’s hard to knock his traditional path to wealth creation.

Most rappers follow Jay Z’s partnership-first mentality: team up with firms to maximize reach and distribution, then use the gains to build their own entities and pursue more partnerships. Rinse and repeat. Kendrick has tremendous respect for Jay, but the “Loyalty” rapper’s approach is a hybrid of partnership and ownership. “Any kind of business outside of art and culture and hip-hop, I have to have full creative control,” he told Forbes in 2017.

Kendrick’s deals aren’t sexy, but “sexy” has never been K.Dot’s M.O. The lack of flash shouldn’t undersell the substance behind his moves.

Real estate is aligned to Kendrick Lamar’s strategy

In 2013, Kendrick made a Saturday Night Live guest appearance and did a spoof song with The Lonely Island. The track was forgettable, but check out K.Dot’s verse:

Uh huh, take no chances, stop freelancin’
Invest in your future, don’t dilute your finances
401K, make sure it’s low risk
Then get some real estate (how much?)
4.2% 30-year mortgage, that’s important, that’s a great deal
And if you can’t afford it, don’t forget it on your last bill
Renting is for suckers right now
A dependable savings
And you’ll retire with money in your account
Beast!

He legit spoke his plan into existence, y’all! Here’s the public record of his investment properties:

2014 – $523,500 4-bedroom home in Eastvale, CA

2018 – $2.65 million 6-bedroom house is Calabasas, CA

2019 – $9.7 million 4-bedroom in Manhattan Beach, CA

He got called cheap for buying the home in Eastvale, bought the Calabasas home 9% below original asking price, and got the Manhattan Beach home in an off-market deal, which typically benefits the buyer. These are buy-and-hold moves.

Kendrick keeps this same energy with his music. He wants his albums to live on. He doesn’t make them to be labeled “instant classics” by 15-year-olds on Hip-Hop Twitter. The legacy matters. His albums sell because of the content, not because of a clever rollout plan.

In other words, he’s the exact opposite of your boy Travis Scott. Astroworld was good, but its success hinged on growth-hacked tactics that are consistent with the rapper’s business model.

The alignment of brand and strategy reminds me of this paragraph from Ben Horowitz’ book What You Do is Who You Are:

“The culture that works for Apple would never work for Amazon. At Apple, generating the most brilliant designs in the world is paramount. To reinforce that message, it spent $5 billion on its sleek new headquarters. As Amazon, Jeff Bezos famously said, “Your fat margins are my opportunity.” To reinforce that message, he made the company be frugal with everything, down to his employees’ ten-dollar desks. Both cultures work. Apple designs dramatically more beautiful products than Amazon, while Amazon’s products are dramatically cheaper than Apple’s.”

The same applies here. In 2013, Kendrick Lamar rapped “Girl, I’m Kendrick Lamar. AKA Benz is to me just a car.” Four years later, he bought his younger sister a Toyota Camry as a graduation gift. He got clowned for his frugality, but he’s consistent! Meanwhile, Travis Scott has the Netflix special, the Super Bowl halftime show, the celebrity relationship, and frequent merch drops. Both strategies work. Alignment is what matters.

Kendrick sat down with Forbes’ Zack O’Malley Greenburg to talk business. He’s consistent with business ventures, music, and everything else.

Partnerships amplify his message

All that said, Kendrick has still dabbled in big brand partnerships. In 2018, he curated the soundtrack for Black Panther—one of Disney’s biggest movies ever. He also had sneaker deals with Reebok and Nike, and partnered with American Express on exclusive concerts.

Each deal has altruistic connections to the Compton rapper’s persona. Black Panther: The Album was a gratifying opportunity for Kendrick to bring the Pan-African experience to life. His sneaker deals emphasized unity between Crips and Bloods. And some of his Amex work benefit charities.

He forms partnerships with companies that amplify movements he supports. Commerce is his vehicle to spread change. It’s a hybrid of the partnership and ownership models I made in Why Distribution Changed Hip-Hop.

Here’s the standard cycle for artists like Beyonce, Travis Scott, Rihanna and others who prioritize partnerships:

Meanwhile, when Kendrick partners with global firms like Disney, Amex, or Nike, he uses money earned to invest in more real estate or support important causes. He’s not like Master P or Tyler Perry who own damn near everything they create. Ownership and partnership are two ends of a spectrum. Everyone falls somewhere on that line.

Future opportunities

As Kendrick repeats this cycle and accumulates more wealth, he’ll have more investment opportunities. He may also take on more partnerships as he sees fit.

Here are the ones that seem most viable:

  • Commercial real estate
    Kendrick’s public deals are all residential, but he can expand. He was friends with Nipsey Hussle who had commercial development plans in South Central Los Angeles. Kendrick is one of the best people to help the marathon continue. Similarly, I assume K.Dot is already in REITs, but if he’s not, then that’s a logical expansion.
  • Artwork
    Art, like real estate, is illiquid and best for those who have a long-term horizon. He has surely seen the artwork collected by moguls like Diddy and Jay Z. Fine art is technically a form of materialism, which Kendrick dismisses. But I’d like to assume he distinguishes an investment in a Kerry James Marshall painting from a buying a Phantom.
  • Development in Africa
    Kendrick’s trip to Africa was life-changing. He can follow Akon’s path to spur economic development throughout the continent. Akon Lighting Africa has faced setbacks due to bureaucracy, but hard work hasn’t stopped Kendrick from achieving a goal. He’s willing to pursue endeavors that take time.

Companies seeking partnerships should look at Kendrick’s past deals. They indicate where his interests lie. Kendrick and Tidal are very much aligned. He never do an album exclusive, but the digital streaming provider supports social issues that hit home for Kendrick. He could working with Tidal similar to how Meek Mill did with the Championships album rollout and the #CRWN series.

A Toyota partnership would have been hilarious given his sister’s car, but I can’t see Kendrick stumping for any car company given his stance on materialism. Buying Toyota is different than repping Toyota.

Years down the road, when Kendrick is a retired rapper and real estate tycoon in Southern California, he’ll be that uncle at holiday dinners. Not the problematic one, but the one who tell kids stuff like, “that new money game is cute and all, but you need to invest your money in assets with compounding interest.” And when the kids say, “But Uncle Kendrick, didn’t you partner with Amex?” He’ll say, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

One thing’s for certain—Kendrick Lamar will be good. He won’t cash out on the next unicorn IPOs like his peers, but his real estate investments will grow. If he becomes a billionaire, it will be decades from now. It’s the long game. And when he reaches billionaire status, he’ll still buy his loved ones reliable four-door sedans and modestly-sized homes.

Lynzie Riebling on Gen Hip Hop, Quantifying the Power of the Hip-Hop Audience, and REVOLT’s Role in the Culture

REVOLT’s VP of Insights & Strategy Lynzie Riebling came through to talk about Revolt’s new study Gen Hip Hop, key findings from the study (did you know gen hip hop has a buying power of $438 billion?!), why this work matters, Revolt’s competition, and more.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | YouTube | Overcast | RSS

Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co
Guest: Lynzie Riebling, @hilynzie, revolt.tv

Link: genhiphopstudy.com – Order a copy of the report. It’s free!

Hip-hop’s influence continues to grow. Learn how it impacts your business. Join the execs, CEOs, and moguls who read Trapital: trapital.co/welcome

How Travis Scott Growth Hacked Hip-Hop

The Houston rapper became a superstar by finding arbitrage opportunities in the industry and exploiting the hell out of them.

Travis Scott performing at Astroworld Festival 2018 (via Roger Ho, Texas Monthly)

Last week, the space150 agency introduced the world to TravisBott: the mumble-rapping, AI robo-rager that you never asked for. Here’s his new music video:

The agency could have picked any artist for this R&D project, but the “Sicko Mode” rapper was a perfect fit. In October, NPR wrote this prophetical article about his single “Highest in the Room”:

Produced by OZ and NIK D, the track should sound familiar to Scott’s fans. In fact, “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” is what it’d sound like if you told an AI to make a Travis Scott song.

If this agency didn’t release TravisBott, the rapper would have probably done something like this himself!

Travis Scott has spent the last few years landing every opportunity to maximize his place in hip-hop. The 27-year-old is one of the superstars most associated with millennial hypebeast culture. He’s given fans endless album bundles and continuous merch drops. While Lil’ Nas X is often called rap’s growth hacker, it’s Travis Scott who has best worked the system to achieve sustained success. His tactics may upset the apple cart, but it’s a tradeoff that’s more than paid itself off.

Astroworld exploited Billboard’s archaic rules

It’s been eighteen months since Astroworld dominated the charts and further exposed the ills of Billboard’s charting methodology. Billboard requires at least 1,250 streams to count for one album. In other words, you would have to listen to a 60-minute album over 80 times in a week to register a first-week album sale. Who the hell has time for that?? This places more weight on digital album downloads, which are meaningless to anyone with a Spotify or Apple Music subscription. To encourage album sales, Billboard allows bundling with items that superfans love, like merch and concert tickets.

While most hip-hop artists play this game to some extent, Travis Scott brought it to an unapologetic level. He built a 24-hour model to maximize sales:

From The Fader:

Every day for the nine days following Astroworld’s release, Scott unveiled new pieces as part of a 28 item line. His website updated every 24 hours and once the new merch popped up, yesterday’s tees and ashtrays and slides disappeared. On the last day of the drops, August 10, the same day [Nicki Minaj] released Queen, Scott unveiled a t-shirt designed in collaboration with Virgil Abloh. A day later that, too, disappeared and was replaced with a whole new line of merch, this time for his Cactus Jack label and Astroworld tour. Every purchase came with pre-sale access to concert tickets and a redeemable download of Astroworld. The hypebeasts came hungry, and Scott fed them, all on his way to a number one album.

“The hypebeasts came hungry” is no joke. This YouTuber bought every, damn, item!

Astroworld blew its first-week sales projections out of the water with 537,000 units sold. More than half were pure album sales, largely driven by bundles. Nicki Minaj, whose album debuted behind Astroworld, aired her gripes out on Twitter. The “Starships” rapper had her own bundles for Queen, but still took issue with Travis’ tactics.

Unfortunately, it’s human nature to hate on those who succeed at exploiting the same rules. College basketball head coach John Calipari took hell for drafting one-and-done players, but the model has since been normalized. In the NBA, the Houston Rockets maximize analytics with three-pointers, layups, and drawing foul calls, but it’s not like other teams are out here relying on elbow jumpers.

Whether it’s Travis Scott, Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats, or James Harden, those who maximize these rules take a theoretical gamble. They trade away the goodwill of “doing things the socially acceptable way” for a competitive advantage. If the goal is to win, these folks want that W. Their odds at winning will increase, and they’ll accept the shame that comes with it.

Astroworld’s rollout worked so well that Travis has ran back several elements since. In November 2018, he launched a Cyber Monday album bundle for Astroworld, a new “Sicko Mode” remix with Skrillex, and had his then-girlfriend Kylie Jenner post concert footage from backstage at Madison Square Garden, all in the same week. His album topped the charts again four months after its debut—a rare feat in the streaming era.

Astroworld was his life’s work. He told fans about it well before he dropped his 2016 album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. I was critical of this timing, which I wrote about in September 2018 in How Travis Scott Cannibalized His Own Success to Promote Astroworld. But in the wake of his Super Bowl halftime show appearance, Netflix special, and Coachella headliner status, I got this one wrong. It’s clearly worked in his favor.

Astroworld Festival is Built to Serve Travis Scott

I’ve written extensively about why rappers run their own music festivals. It’s a high risk-high reward opportunity centered around the artist betting on the strength of their brand. Most artists pride themselves on beating the odds to make it this far. Who wouldn’t want in on that?

While most festivals sell fans on promising lineups, Astroworld Fest is the exact opposite. Astroworld hides the lineup until the day before the show and still sells out 50,000 tickets well in advance. And it’s not like his lineups lack power. Last year he had Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Migos, Young Thug, DaBaby, Pharrell, and Gucci Mane! That roster could sell out a festival itself. But the point is to sell tickets on Travis Scott’s name. Everyone else is icing on the cake.

This strengthens Scott’s value-add to sponsors relative to other festivals. Bonnaroo may attract more fans, but those fans have less of a unified identity. Also, a growing portion of those Bonnaroo attendees are influencers, so they’re not necessarily true fans. Meanwhile, if someone is willing to pay up to $550 for a one-day ticket to a festival where the only known performer is Travis Scott, it narrows the customer profile dramatically. That’s a win for Travis and companies that want to advertise to that customer.

The next level is business-to-business

Travis Scott’s next album is almost guaranteed to top the charts. “Highest in the Room” debuted at #1 thanks to a merch bundle, which will carry over to its first-week album sales. Now that Travis has mastered this game, it’s time to level up. He should follow Jay Z, who turned his albums into enterprise sales products.

From The Black Album to 4:44, Jay Z partnered with different cell phone manufacturers and carriers to buy his album and sell it to their customer base. He leveraged their audience and distribution. The rollouts weren’t perfect, but they got the job done.

Here’s what I wrote in Jay Z’s Cell Phone Partnership Strategy, Explained:

The distribution channels for 4:44. The top box is the exclusive partners, who got initial access and their customers (green). The second box are the other digital streaming providers, and the third box are the brick-and-mortar retailers.

From a 2017 article from The Verge:

“Earlier this year, Jay Z struck a deal to sell 33 percent of his streaming service Tidal to Sprint for $200 million, raising the valuation of the company to $600 million. Sprint announced the deal would include Tidal artists releasing “exclusive content that will only be available to current and new Sprint customers,” and a $75 million budget to fund and market that content.”

 

Jay Z made a sale that valued the company at more than 10x his purchase price just two years earlier. That’s impressive especially with all the turmoil and controversy that surrounded Tidal during that stretch.

 

But the real kicker is that $75 million was budgeted for exclusive content for Sprint. Five months after the deal was publicized, Jay Z dropped 4:44 as a Sprint-Tidal exclusive. This connected the streaming service with Sprint, which now had a vested interest in Tidal’s success (not too different from Live Nation’s interest in Roc Nation). And by partnering with a cellular carrier instead of a manufacturer like Nokia or Samsung, Jay increased his flexibility and integration capabilities.

 

It was the ideal partnership for Jay Z. The 4:44 launch still wasn’t perfect, but it was the best example yet. Technology enabled the distribution, joint ownership, and vested interest of all parties involved to get the product in the hands of the target consumers.

Here are two partnership opportunities for Travis Scott:

  • Nike SNKRS App:
    Travis Scott has already released 10 sneakers in collaboration with Nike-Jordan Brand. SNKRS has become the bane of existence for sneakerheads, but it’s an app that Travis Scott’s core fans likely have on their phone. Nike could buy a few million copies of Travis’ next album and make it redeemable through the app. In turn, this increases demand for future sneaker drops.

    Additionally, the SNKRS app and its customers are already used to click races during peak demand. The same can be done when the Travis Scott album is available for download. Can you imagine if Nike handled digital album downloads more smoothly than Samsung and Sprint did for Hov’s albums? I would hope Nike’s social media team would have their jokes ready.

  • Square’s Cash App:
    It’s the digital money transfer service most associated with hip-hop. In 2018, La Flame gave away $100,000 to fans who quoted Astroworld lyrics on Twitter with their $cashtag.

    Square could buy 5 million copies of Travis’ next album for $5 each. Cash App users can download the album for free if they send/receive at least $500 on the app within 30 days. It would accelerate Cash App’s growth, which is last reported at 15 million users. The minimum spend requirement is similar to a credit card bonus that requires users to spend $5,000 in the first three months. It’s more data for Square, and the ease of use may increase the likelihood of a lasting customer that uses future Square products.

Travis Scott doesn’t have to pick one, he could do both deals. It’s a win-win that would get covered by every hip-hop news outlet. Folks would continue to debate whether Scott is smart or if his tactics ruin the sanctimony of album sales. Either way, the attention ensures another multi-platinum chart-topping album, exactly as planned.

If Travis Scott ran a digital media company today, he would have banner ads on every website, Instagram ads that make you say, “…is this MF listening to my conversations?”, pre-roll on every podcast, and the most absurd referral bonuses imaginable. Most album bundles already run at a loss, so customer acquisition costs would be through the roof. But you think La Flame cares? He’s not bootstrapping a startup. He has money and connections, and he’s not afraid to use it.

Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge once implied that Drake has an unlimited budget. The same is likely true for Travis Scott at Epic and Sony. But while many of his peers may hesitate to take them up on that offer, Travis wouldn’t. Love it or hate it, it’s how he got to where he is.

Karl Fowlkes on Music Business Law, Combat Jack’s Influence, and Why He Hopes There are Less Lawyers in 20 Years

The Fowlkes Firm founder and music business professor Karl Fowlkes talked about his experience as an entertainment lawyer, why he fights for producers rights, music publishing exams, trends in digital streaming, the late Combat Jack (Reggie Ossé), and his series “The Courtroom.”

 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | YouTube | Overcast | RSS

Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co
Guest: Karl Fowlkes, @esqfowlkes, elawandbusiness.com

Links:

 

Hip-hop’s influence continues to grow. Learn how it impacts your business. Join the execs, CEOs, and moguls who read Trapital: trapital.co/welcome

Hamilton’s Expansion Plan, Explained

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical has made timely efforts to maximize its IP, and teamed with Disney to (inevitably) take it to the next level.

(via Rolling Stone)

Lin-Manuel Miranda has not one, but TWO movie deals underway. Last week the 40-year-old playwright agreed to a $75 million deal with Disney for the movie rights to Hamilton: The Musical. In 2018, he agreed to a $50 million deal with Warner Bros for the film rights to In The Heights which hits theaters in June. The Tony Award-winner is one of the few people who can legitimately say, “I’ve been in my bag all year.”

But the deals for Hamilton and In the Heights are drastically different. In The Heights is a traditional film adaptation with a major studio, similar to Les Miserables, Rent, and Chicago. Hamilton is a partnership with Disney, an entertainment behemoth with enough tentacles to squeeze every ounce of life from the IP of Miranda’s hip-hop post-colonial musical. This deal is only for the movie rights, but let’s not be naive. This is just the beginning.

Miranda and Hamilton’s lead producer Jeffrey Seller have already extended the experience through exhibitions, mixtapes, fan engagement, merchandise, and more. While others may pause at any risk to cannibalize a musical that generated $500,000 a week in profit, Hamilton’s expansion will drive more interest to the core product. These moves laid the groundwork for future expansion with Disney.

Maximize a pop culture phenomenon

Typically, the most popular Broadway musicals are still a few steps removed from the apex of pop culture. The Book of Mormon was massive, but you could live a normal life and not know much about it. Hamilton was bigger. Remember, the U.S. Treasury had plans underway to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. Plans stopped because of the founding father’s sudden rise in popularity.

Cultural phenomenons rarely reach peak levels of mania unless they capture the moment. For Hamilton, that moment was its lasting bond with the Obama administration. In 2009 (six years before Hamilton hit Broadway), Miranda was invited to the White House Poetry Jam to perform “Alexander Hamilton.” The existence of a black president was the perfect parallel for a screenplay where our founding fathers were replaced by black and brown rappers. Obama himself got name-dropped in rap songs left and right. He hosted rappers at the White House. Hip-hop was part of the president’s identity.

But while cultural phenomenons can be lucrative, they present two business challenges. First, they all have shelf lives. Whether it’s Beanie Babies, Guitar Hero, or Fetty Wap’s summer ’15, nothing lasts forever. This is especially challenging in an industry where the standard for success is an institutional cash cow like Phantom of the Opera.

Second, the economics of phenomenons are more art than science. The limited capacity and high ticket prices drove the high demand. If supply increased too quickly, then the scarcity would be gone and the fan experience would diminish.

Hamilton became a Veblen good. But unlike most Veblen goods (Rolls Royces, Balenciagas, red bottoms) Hamilton may not stay that way forever. It will have a long run on Broadway for some time, but there’s still a carryover effect from the mass hysteria in 2015 and 2016.

There was a consumer surplus at several levels. Ticket scalpers earned an estimated $60 million from Hamilton in 2016. Many felt that the tickets were STILL underpriced at $849. Also, fans who were willing to pay a few hundred bucks per ticket (which would still yield a great profit) were priced out of the market. There was no accessible way to serve folks who were willing to pay but couldn’t. It’s a great challenge to have, but it’s still a challenge.

Expansions and missteps

Seller, who worked with Miranda on In The Heights, was intentioned about his efforts to make Hamilton a lasting experience despite the quick rise in popularity. From The New York Times:

“We don’t want this to be a show that lasts for four years and everybody says, That was nice. We want people who come to New York to say: I want to see the Statue of Liberty, go to the top of the Empire State Building, walk in Central Park. And I want to see ‘Hamilton.’ ”

The team chose not to do a Super Bowl commercial (Sellers said it was a waste of money) or participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but they did do the opening musical number at the 2016 Grammys. From the same New York Times article:

The Grammy producers had wanted the cast to appear at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, but Seller told them he would participate only “if we can use our theater, our stage and our lighting, so America can see what ‘Hamilton’ really looks like.”

Seller and Miranda moved forward with the initiatives that could add similar value. #Ham4Ham was Miranda’s way to engage with the hundreds of fans who waited outside the theater for $10 lottery tickets. Two hours before the show, cast members would step outside and engage with the crowd or do a quick number. Most fans in line had no chance to get in that building, but it was a great way to build a connection. Here’s an example:

The benefits are similar to what I wrote about in J. Cole’s Dollar & a Dream Tour. The $1 concerts made J. Cole’s day-one fans feel more devoted. The spontaneity built stronger fandom from those who didn’t attend but still heard about it, much like Ham4Ham.

The experience was also extended through The Hamilton Mixtape, a re-recording of the original album with hip-hop stars. There were other spinoff products too, like an instrumentals album, Hamiltunes sing-along events, and the Hamildrops series of songs inspired by the musical (which featured President Obama himself).

But some expansions performed better than others. Hamilton: The Exhibition—a deep dive on the founding father— started in Chicago but shut down after a few months. Some blamed its lackluster success on the less than ideal location in the Chicagoland area, but the exhibition was canceled in other cities where those logistical challenges could have been addressed. Others felt it was too much “Alexander Hamilton” and not enough “Hamilton.” Go figure.

It’s not a coincidence that the most intensive spinoff experience is the one that failed. There’s a market for an experience like this, but this wasn’t it. They would benefit from a partner like Disney that had a track record of success in this area.

Disney can add value where Hamilton could not

When the Disney-Hamilton deal was first announced, I tweeted this out:

I left out the obvious “Hamilton: Civil War.” Regardless, the writing is on the wall!

Since 2013, Disney has aggressively pursued Miranda like a TMZ reporter at a Love & Hip-Hop Reunion. The relationship led to Miranda’s work in Moana, Mary Poppins Returns, Star Wars, and Ducktales. In October 2021, fans will get to see a live capture of a 2016 Hamilton performance at their local theater, but a true film adaptation may be underway. The company’s core competency is IP maximization. It uses this same strategy with anything valuable that enters its sphere.

Disney famously lost the bid for the Harry Potter-themed amusement park to Universal because its proposal was too modest. It’s wild to think that Disney, the company carrying the blockbuster film industry on its back, thought too small. But Universal came stronger and has reaped the rewards. This remorse heightens Disney’s desire to not let that happen again, especially since Hamilton is one of the biggest phenomenons since Harry Potter.

Hamilton can be experienced at multiple levels

The core product of the most successful IP expansions—Harry Potter, Marvel, The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean—were all accessible to everyday consumers. As they grew, the experiences expanded both up and downmarket. Hamilton, however, started with the most affluent consumers in one of the most expensive cities. Conventional theory holds that it’s easier to move downmarket. Miranda and Seller’s strategy to date rests on that notion.

The typical Disney experience is geared toward those families who travel to amusement parks. These are not necessarily the same folks who are willing to spend $500 each on Hamilton orchestra seats and a $200 dinner in Midtown Manhattan after the show. The amusement park folks are still willing to spend money on Hamilton, but the stakes are different. Their spend would be part of the annual family vacation. For the customers furthest downmarket, they might listen to the soundtrack hundreds of times and buy merch. It’s a small purchase but it makes the experience accessible without cheapening the core product.

The Hamilton Entertainment Universe may be well underway. The 2021 movie release may bring Beyonce’s Homecoming levels of hype, which will continue when it hits Disney+. If Seller wants Hamiton to be the American institution it desires to be, he found the right partner. In the meantime, we’ll just brace ourselves for the inevitable Hamilton: The Mandalorian.

Jesse Kirshbaum on Nue Agency’s Brand Marketing, #CRWN Interview Series, and the Future of Award Shows

Nue Agency Founder and CEO Jesse Kirshbaum talked about his company’s transition from talent to brand partnerships. We also talked about his brand activation deals with Sour Patch Kids and Tidal, The Grammys, the Super Bowl Halftime Show, upcoming awards shows, and more.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | YouTube | Overcast | RSS

Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co
Guest: Jesse Kirshbaum, @jessekay, nueagency.com

Links:

The Patch South Patch Kids brand partnership – Nue Agency

#CRWN partnership with Nue Agency – Nue Agency

A Conversation with Elliot Wilson & Meek Mill – Tidal

Grammys PostGame – Beats and Bytes newsletter

Hip-hop’s influence continues to grow. Learn how it impacts your business. Join the execs, CEOs, and moguls who read Trapital: trapital.co/welcome