Last night, Burberry become the first brand to offer curated music on the Apple Music streaming service. In fact, Burberry is the first brand to officially align with any streaming service to offer curated playlists. The move makes a lot of sense, especially for a fashion brand – music and fashion have long gone hand in hand. By launching a channel of hand-picked music, Burberry is able to express the persona of their brand in a new way and to a new audience. Currently the 3 playlists offered by Burberry; they are focused on British music and are themed around runway shows, emerging artists, and favorite tunes of the company’s Chief Creative Officer / CEO.
Since Apple’s service launched almost 3 months ago, there has been a section of playlists curated by 3rd parties, but those were almost exclusively offered by various publications such as Wired and Rolling Stone. The move into content offered by brands makes a lot of sense and Burberry was a logical first choice, with Apple’s Angela Ahrendts having been hired away from the CEO role at the British fashion company. [We also wouldn’t be shocked to see a Hermès channel launch in the not too distant future.] It will be interesting to see if Burberry maintains the momentum of keeping their channel updated and if other brands will launch similar offerings. Given the ultra-competitive music streaming space, if we had to guess, other brands will shortly launch similar offerings which will be exclusive to different streaming services.
