At the intersection of urban music and hype gear, the all-new service droppTV lets fans watch new music videos, and click & buy exclusive Hypebeast threads their favorite artists are wearing in them – all in real-time and without ever leaving the video.
Now fans don’t have to comb through the internet trying to figure out what coveted artists are sporting in their favorite music videos. The droppTV platform is powered by the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision algorithm, which recognizes products in video content and tags them in real-time, allowing for frictionless, one-click in-content purchasing. New shoppable videos with new merch “dropps” launch every Saturday on droppTV. Viewers can watch droppTV and make purchases on any device – smartphone, tablet or desktop. droppTV will also soon be available on AppleTV. The droppTV app is available on iOS and Android. We had a chance to talk to the droppTV founder and CEO, Gurps Rai, to hear all about the platform!
The Knockturnal: What inspired you to create this network?
Gurps Rai: It’s not a network, droppTV is a marketplace that allows brands/retailers to integrate influential content to create an exclusive DTC experience for consumers. The inspiration stemmed from watching the technological democratization of the music industry that caused a huge volume of independent artists that did not have a home to create a steady flow of income. Since then dropp has taken on a life of its own with production companies figuring out they can use dropp’s tech to sell product placement to brands and pay for production upfront.
The Knockturnal: Tell us a bit about your background. Did you work in tech /Music in the past?
Gurps Rai: I’ve always been around the music industry in particular being mentored by the late great Heavy D but I never did anything other than hung out in the industry but all the time watching closely the landscape change. My background is in providing strategic solutions for the MENA region from structuring ME investments into Africa to Silicon Valley. I think staying ahead of investment trends gave me a skill set to peer into the future of any industry I focused my attention on.
The Knockturnal: What makes your technology unique?
Gurps Rai: The fact our algorithm identifies in real-time products within the actual stream of content, tags and makes it shoppable with a global payment and logistics structure all at the tip of a consumer finger is pretty unique. There isn’t a company in the world that can deliver this experience and deliver it on a myriad of operating systems and tailored consumer experience dependent on the device.
The Knockturnal: How do you choose what brands to collab with?
Gurps Rai: We actually have brands reaching out and onboarding utilizing our free eCom engine and we have a matching engine that matches brands with influencers for a brand integration. We also have deals with marketplaces that have thousands of brands that need another channel for distribution. Our target was to have 100 streetwear brands by Dec 2021 and to date, we have thousands of brands from Wine brands like Trefethen to COOGI and LO Life to artisanal designers from Lebanon to a soap brand in Nigeria. dropp has turned into a true marketplace that is generated by the global pool of artists that create content for dropp.
The Knockturnal: How can artists get involved?
Gurps Rai: Typically labels reach out with their roster but we do get DM’s on IG and indie artists that fill out our form on artist.dropp.tv. Sometimes I hear dope artists on SoundCloud and I hit them personally as a fan and say hey that’s a dope record let’s shoot a vid.
The Knockturnal: How did the Ashanti collab come about?
Gurps Rai: The Ashanti project came about because one of our partners had worked on a merch line before. She’s a forward-thinking artist and when she saw dropp she immediately started connecting dots on how she can monetize her ecosystem and more importantly use her platform and dropp as a toolkit to help the culture with real revenue for Black-owned brands.
The Knockturnal: What are your hopes for droppTV for the future?
Gurps Rai: I see dropp being the connective tissue of the eCommerce and retail industry. We are not just a shoppable streaming company but we have a demonstrable tech stack that brands, retailers, and influencers can use individually to optimize their business in other channels. We launch our AppleTV app in Dec with long-form content which will be interesting to see how we become a staple of entertainment and shopping.
Learn more about droppTV here!
