Anti-360 deals must have a downside – right?

The four areas below remain critical points when evaluating the effectiveness of anti-360 deals:

1. Lifestyle Branding

Companies who generate anti-360 opportunities typically have certain customers.  For example – Red Bull energy drink is highly embraced in the extreme sports community.  Snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX riders and adrenaline enthusiasts typically involved in this community gravitate towards certain genres of music. With this known – does your band fit the community typically accessed by the company? If the answer is NO, don’t force the relationship because it won’t benefit the band or the company.

2. Unique Outlets

Non-traditional deals typically translate into a lack of traditional distribution and radio exposure. This isn’t a bad thing, however it is an area that must be evaluated when seeking the correct anti-360 fit. For example – Hard Rock Records, one of the newest anti-360 players in the game, lacks ambition with traditional physical/digital distribution.It’s likely you’ll never see their artists in major chain stores, purchase albums in iTunes or hear them on the radio.  However, Hard Rock Records artists and their products will be highly visible throughout Hard Rock Café’s 173 locations scattered throughout 53 countries.  Additionally, their artists will be consistently showcased at Hard Rock Casino stages around the globe and pumping through speakers at any Hard Rock location.

3. Ownership

A majority of anti-360 companies have little interested in controlling intellectual property. Their particular interest lies with marketing, promotion and visual components. If offered a partnership deal, it’s important to analyse what is still owned by the band – copyrights, trademarks, a majority stake in royalties, publishing, etc. Secondly, if the company retains some portion of ownership (that’s okay) it’s becomes important to review the duration of time.  For example, labels typically own product “in perpetuity” (i.e. – forever), as anti-360 deals may own product for a specific amount of time.

4. Use

Anti-360 companies have the luxury of already penetrating an established market (cf. point 1 – Lifestyle Branding).  As this may appear appealing on one hand, it could also prove detrimental on the other.  For example – many anti-360 deals may require a gratis license towards “Company-related use.”  What’s company-related use, and how deep does this go? Fictiously, assume Mountain Dew signs Band X to an anti-360 deal and the band gives them a gratis use license for music produced while under the agreement.  Mountain Dew may use a particular track for commercials, sporting events, theme songs, product bundles, etc. Additionally, Mountain Dew may have a sister company that produces sports related documentaries, which now has access to the songs. If Band X retains publishing rights in the anti-360 agreement addressed above, they should generate hefty income from the situations identified.  However, due to the gratis license, they’ve now lost a large portion of publishing income due to “Company related use.”