by Lauren Indvik on Mashable
Online clothing retailer Ssense has debuted what appears to be the first music video you can make purchases in, featuring Australian rapper Iggy Azalea alongside hip-hop duo FKi and Grammy-nominated producer Diplo.
The music video is pretty standard for the genre, alternating between L.A. street scenes and close-up, overexposed studio shots of the various stars. What’s different is the “S” icons that repeatedly appear throughout (see below).
Clicking on the icons will pause the video and pull up a page showcasing all of the products — mostly merchandise from high-end designers including Givenchy, Phillip Lim and Christopher Kane — worn in the shot. It’s only a few clicks to add those items to your shopping cart.
Online retailers have been producing shoppable editorial content for some time now: Net-a-Porter and sister (or, rather, brother) site Mr Porter both release weekly online magazines that links spreads to product pages. And Joyus, a women’s retail site launched in early 2011, sells most of its merchandise through 2-to-4-minute shoppable infomercials.
What we find most interesting about the video is the implications it could have for the entertainment industry. It’s not difficult to imagine a time when most — if not all — major music videos were made shoppable, especially given the number of music artists who double as style icons.
And it’s not just clothing that could be made available for purchase: there’s a huge opportunity to push autos, beverages, airlines — you name it.
Would you buy the content of a music video? Let us know in the comments.
[via Fashionista]