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Airbnb decides it’s time to do something with music

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 9 March 2017

There comes a time in every brand’s life when some exec says in a meeting, “it would be great if we could do something with music”. Then someone has to work out what that “something” is, picking from the three music sponsorship ideas all marketing people ever have so far come up with. That time in Airbnb’s life has come and it has gone with the ‘music experiences’ option.

So lacking in imagination are the people behind the scheme that they’ve actually just called it ‘Music Experiences’. Although given that it’s promoting Airbnb’s Trips platform, perhaps the say-what-you-see approach is intentional.

Among the music experiences you can get access to through Music Experiences are attending intimate shows and getting into sold out gigs. The idea is that each music experience – or Music Experience if you prefer – gives you an up close insight into the culture of whatever city you’re in. So, for example, in London you can go on some sort of grime walking tour, which is almost certainly the worst combination of words I have ever typed.

For the intimate gigs option, Airbnb is teaming up with Sofar Sounds, which should at least ensure that those are quite good.

“Music is an incredible way to bring people together”, weeps Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. “We’re launching Music Experiences to give people access to exclusive and immersive music events – from intimate live performances, special pop up gigs, underground music sessions and meeting local artists and performers. Through the platform, we’re able to support up and coming and local artists by connecting people to their events and bringing their music to even more fans around the world”.

All of this nonsense is now available in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, Nairobi, Cape Town, Detroit, Miami, Paris, Havana, Tokyo, Florence and Seoul.