K-Swiss, the brand synonymous with the game of tennis, and DJ Diplo are collaborating on a new project entitled, "The Board". The world renowned DJ who has worked with many of today's mega-stars will lead a collective of 100 creative and connected people who will help redefine the K-Swiss brand. Members accepted to The Board will gain access to experts in design, branding, marketing, and business as they traverse a six-week curriculum program. The experts will educate members of The Board who will then be tasked with applying their creativity and new knowledge to the K-Swiss brand in areas such as sneaker design, brand positioning, and other business development opportunities. It will be interesting to see who is actually selected to become a part of this endeavor as well as how much power they will have in terms of the direction of the company, but I do applaud K-Swiss for creating an interesting solution to an image problem that has nagged the heritage brand for years. Check out the video for the program below.
business
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better /
Let's face it, we all can't be Beyoncé, but we can eat like her! After participating in the "22 Day Nutrition challenge" with Mr. Carter, Beyoncé has decided to team up with her long-time trainer, Marcos Borges to create a new company called 22 Days Nutrition. Based off the premise that it takes 21 days to break a habit and an additional one to signal a fresh start, the company will be delivering plant-based meals with no gluten, soy, dairy or GMOs to homes. The meals, which are priced from $9.76 to $16.50, will be delivered once a week with the option of purchasing up to three meals a day. Check out the statement by Queen Bey herself on the impending venture below.
"I am so grateful that I took the challenge and credit Marco with leading by example. He is the most energetic person I know and it's all because of his decision to live a healthy lifestyle. He came up with a great program to get people motivated to make better nutritional choices. All you have to do is try. If I can do it, anyone can. I am excited to partner with him."
Jay Z's Foray into Music Streaming /
It's no secret that the music industry has changed. The way in which we consume music is different. The days of the prominent record stores are long gone and so is the era of purchased music downloads. In this past year alone, track and album downloaded purchases dropped by 12.5% and 9.4% respectively. What's taking the downloaded purchases place? Streaming. The introduction of companies like Spotify, which boasts 15 million subscriptions, and SoundCloud are redefining how music is listened to and how it is consumed.
Having been vocal about the evolution of the music business in past interviews, Jay Z has jumped into the fray by purchasing Aspiro, the parent company of two subscription streaming services, WiMP and TIDAL. The $56.2 million offer, which has already been approved, represents a 59.1% premium over the company's closing share price. The proposal was made through one of Shawn Carter's subsidiary companies, Project Panther Bidco, with the intention of expanding and improving upon the two companies' technology and services.
Project Panther Bidco, Ltd ("Panther"), an entity controlled by S. Carter Enterprises, LLC ("SCE") is pursuing a possible acquisition of Aspiro AB ("Aspiro"), based in Sweden. Aspiro is a media technology company in the forefront of the ongoing redefinition of music consumption. Through the subscription services WiMP and TIDAL, Aspiro offers a complete experience of higher HiFi quality. The platform encompasses audio, video and integrated editorial features.
Panther believes that the recent developments in the entertainment industry, with the migration to media streaming, offers great potential for increased entertainment consumption and an opportunity for artists to further promote their music. Panther's strategic ambition revolves around global expansion and up-scaling of Aspiro's platform, technology and services.
The acquisition is subject to shareholder approval. As such there is no guaranty that a transaction will take place.
WiMP was initially founded in 2011 as a direct competitor to Spotify. Although it has been unable to reach the volume Spotify has, it does have a current paying subscription list of 512,000 users. Moreover, WiMP provides a unique video syndication platform, RADR Music, which presents videos and live performance footage to online media enterprises. Rivaling media behemoth YouTube, RADR is an interesting element to the Aspiro portfolio as it could be used to expand upon Jay Z's current cultural website Life and Times. TIDAL, while similar to WiMP, is for the music purists, combining High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos and a uniquely curated experience.
Although the specific details of the change to be implemented have yet to be disclosed, there is much work to be done in terms of transforming these companies into being actual competitors to the already popular streaming services. Things don't get any easier when you consider the re-launch of Beats Electronics' streaming services by Apple in the coming months as well. Jay Z, forever the business man, continues to diversify his ventures in ways that expand upon the foundation he has built. Stay tuned with InTheRough for more developments on Aspiro.