Direct to brand bands

Pick up a band on eBay

What?: Ever fancied owning your own band, but can’t be bothered with the rigmarole of actually putting one together? eBay may be the answer.

1990s hoedown hillbilly novelty band Rednex – responsible for one hit wonder Cotton Eyed Joe – have put themselves up for sale on eBay for $1,500,000. The ‘lucky’ buyer – presuming there is one – will receive 100% of the shares to the Swedish company Rednex AB, controlling ownership of all contracts, catalogue, record deals, releases and tours. Plus a new album has been recorded with a scheduled September 2007 release date, through Universal Music.

So what?: Although owning an outdated 90s Swedish pop band is not to everyone’s taste, the sale itself brings up intriguing questions for brands. An off the shelf purchase could prove potentially lucrative for a brand, as opposed to the traditional model of alignment with an established artist via a campaign. A brand could purchase and manipulate a band/artist to their product, utilsing music directly for their own needs whilst maintaining complete control of perception from the offset.

Saatchi & Saatchi are offering this service in part by creating a band rental strategy with their manufactured girl band ‘Honeyshot’ – recently causing a song to be stripped from Radio 1 airplay because of its links to Shockwaves hair gel. Clearly radio isn’t keen, but what consumers make of this kind of manipulation is open to question. Either way expect to see direct to brand bands emerging in the not so distant future.

www.popbandforsale.com