First it was Pimp My Ride, then MySpace, and presently, it's rapidly becoming the gadgets that you keep in your ride to check your MySpace. Everybody is about expressing themselves in a savvy, artistic and exclusive way these days. Sneakers stay in rotation, so do ringtones, but it's the personal devices that are always in our ears, pockets and on the desk at work.
The New York-based company Music Skins recognizes this, and has used state-of-the-art, patented technology, high-end design skills and a vehicle that's friendly to consumer and creator to capitalize on this endless trend. Vince Bartozzi, company president, spoke to HipHopDX from his Midtown Manhattan studio and office, where skins ranging from Kidz In The Hall and The Clipse to Michael Jordan, Jenna Jameson and Exploding Dog are made.
See where this idea stems from, the marketability involved, and how you as artist, label or simply fan can get involved in the next wave of technology, business and streetwear. Not since Brand Nubian have skins been so worthy of discussion.
HipHopDX: Tell me about your experience in the entertainment and technology sectors prior to Music Skins…
Vince Bartozzi: It’s kind of a unique story. I was going to Georgetown. One of my roommates, his godfather was the President of Atlantic Records, Craig Kallman, and basically, he was interning for Craig in the summers here in New York, at Atlantic, and the summer of our Junior year, he called me and said, “Look, they’re starting a label at Warner Music [Group]. It’s called Asylum; they’re looking for people to work there. You should come up and interview.” I came up and interviewed, and basically started that day. That was my Junior year summer. So my Senior year, I was traveling back and forth to [Washington DC], finishing up at school and working full-time at Asylum. I started off the first week, basically as an intern, and HR said, “If [he’s] not getting college credit, we gotta pay this guy, and they started paying me.” I was an A&R coordinator then was A&R research, and basically assistant to Joey I.E. and Todd Moscowitz up there for two-and-a-half years.
DX: Did you have a heavy hand in any of their Hip Hop releases?
VB: I was pretty much the person who found D4L. I had a hand with Webbie [click to read] and Paul Wall [click to read]. We were on the 24th floor of the Warner building when Elektra had just gone out of business, so there were four people up there to start Asylum. Everything from Lil Wyte, which was the first release we did, to Bun B [click to read], was the last album I was involved with – Trill.
DX: When went gold.
VB: I have a gold plaque. I think it is close to platinum. That was my first experience with music, although I had a small indie label in college, and I’d always been into it. That was my introduction into the world of music, especially Hip Hop. We thought we put the south on the map, as far as pop culture is concerned.
DX: As you’re leaving Asylum, this thing called the iPod gets really big. Tell me about how you looked at Music Skins; did it begin with a vehicle before the iPod?
VB: It’s interesting, ‘cause what happened at Asylum, six months into my being there, they brought on this gentleman Ron Spalding, who was VP of Sales for all of WEA. He became the GM of Asylum, and handled all the sales. He actually became my partner; we had a sales company. The whole purpose behind the sales company was to take the artists we were working with and brand them onto different products. We had a spinning room air freshener, we had a hanging air freshener, we were working with two or three clothing lines, and essentially taking Paul Wall, Mike Jones and putting their faces on these products and trying to sell them in the music retail. I started that company. One of the products we came across were these two guys who had just invented these skin products. They were doing them strictly for the new iPod, which was the big, bulky, heavy white iPod, and they were licensing imagery from [Vincent] Van Gogh and [Pablo] Picasso. We just thought that it would be a great idea and put these musicians and put ‘em on these skins. It was a thought for a while before there was any action, but him and I, from the beginning, always thought that these artists have such a brand, and the record company is spending so much money to create this brand, and they’re not capitalizing on it. From there, he left Asylum and went to Fontana. We kind of dissolved the partnership, but I had a good friend of mine who’s now my current partner; I’ve known him since I was four, and he wouldn’t let the idea die – Jed Seifert. We put a business-plan together, raised some capital, and the rest is kind of history.
DX: Nowadays, are you guys primarily doing skins for iPods, or are there other devices?
VB: Sure. At first it was iPods, but now it’s more of a focus on personal devices. We have all the iPods, the Razor phones, Sidekick II and III. We have three different models of Blackberry. We have the [Playstation] PSP, Nintendo DS, a couple different Guitar Hero skins. We make every size in laptop. That’s what it is right now. In the next 10 years, you’re gonna essentially have the computer in the palm of your hands. Being able to customize that and stylize yourself, whether having your favorite artist, band, musician, streetwear, that’s what Music Skins is all about – music and the culture behind music.
DX: You showed me your Barack Obama demo skin on your phone. The technology of these things have come such a long way. Logistically, how far have skins come from the days of those scary rhinestone Sidekick skins that they were selling years ago…
VB: The technology took over a year to develop and close to $100,000 before we printed a skin. That was me working hands-on with these two gentlemen who created the product. It’s a 3M patented product. You can’t buy this from 3M and go anywhere else in the world, other than North America to use this product. The technology behind it, the patents that 3M owns on this material make it very difficult. It’s not cheap to make, but again, the quality of the artists who’s putting their artwork on it and the customer who’s buying. You’re not gonna be disappointed. When you’re ready to switch your skin up or do what you do, it’s not gonna leave any residue on your device.
DX: Is this a technology and promotional vehicle that you find speaks moreso to Hip Hop than other genres?
VB: Not only is it balanced in genres of music, it’s balanced in all different types of entertainment and fashion. Anywhere where someone wants to show their personality, this product makes sense. Other than your clothes and your wallet, your devices are essential to leaving the house. This is the wave of the future. It just depends on who you’re talking to. We’ve had a lot of success with Rock music, Rap music. The best seller on our site is Exploding Dog. He’s this artist who has this site. You can write him a daily one-line email sentence, and he has four or five different characters, that he’ll actually take what you wrote him, for instance “I hate my job,” and he’ll put his own twist on it. The two designs that we sell right now are “I hate technology” and “Red Robot leaves the city.” He does this daily. He gets 50-100 emails daily and 100,000 people to his site daily. Really, the cool thing about him is, you look at his art, it’s very simple. But at the end of the day, the head of marketing at Def Jam has one on his iPhone. The art transcends things. Music Skins capitalizes on that.
DX: If I’m an artist reading this interview and I have decent buzz, a lot of MySpace friends and can sell CDs in my neighborhood, can I work with Music Skins?
VB: Sure. We want to be the one-stop for any artist, musician or band. We’ll work with anyone. Our minimums are low. Pricing is the same place as everybody else in the industry, if not, lower. But you really can’t go anywhere else and buy 10 units. If you want to design ‘em and send ‘em over, basically, we’ll print ‘em.
DX: You have in-house design as well for higher end projects too though?
VB: Oh yeah. We can help you with all that. We have a full design staff here. Most major labels send us their full imagery and we do all the layouts. It really depends where you’re at. If you know how to use Photoshop, we’ll send you the templates and you can lay them out yourself and we’ll print them.
DX: What’s your day-to-day like?
VB: It’s…[Laughs] I’m up at nine, and I’m basically working until I go to sleep, and that is 12 or one o’clock. In all, the money we’re making is going right back into the business. It’s a long road. These things don’t happen overnight. We have licensing deals that have taken a year to get done. It taught me a lot about patience and hard work. We signed some big deals in the last couple weeks.
DX: My next question exactly. What’s coming up?
VB: We just signed a deal from VIBE. You’ll actually be able to purchase Music Skins from Vibe.com. We have an ongoing relationship with Koch, so we have a Clipse [click to read] skin coming out with the [Re-Up Gang] CD. [Sighs] I wish I could give you more info, but we have deals on the table with two of the major management companies in the Hip Hop world. It would almost be everybody that anybody really cares about these days. It could actually happening before this hits the site. [Laughs] We have big projects with clothing companies like L-R-G, Mishka NYC, Lemar & Dauley, Money Clothing, Greedy Genius Sneakers. Those are projects that should be off the ground very soon. It’s really a continuing thing. We have 147 licensing deals that are on the table right now.
DX: In all the devices you have, what are your skins right now?
VB: Gotta go with the Barack Obama. I’ve got a Mishka NYC iBall that you can’t get. My iPhone has a skin that nobody will ever see [sighs] of Michael Jordan, a portrait by Virtual Mo. It’s elaborate, all one line that makes up a portrait of Michael Jordan. He was commissioned by Jordan, and went on the back of one of his customer jerseys.
For more information [click here].
The New York-based company Music Skins recognizes this, and has used state-of-the-art, patented technology, high-end design skills and a vehicle that's friendly to consumer and creator to capitalize on this endless trend. Vince Bartozzi, company president, spoke to HipHopDX from his Midtown Manhattan studio and office, where skins ranging from Kidz In The Hall and The Clipse to Michael Jordan, Jenna Jameson and Exploding Dog are made.
See where this idea stems from, the marketability involved, and how you as artist, label or simply fan can get involved in the next wave of technology, business and streetwear. Not since Brand Nubian have skins been so worthy of discussion.
HipHopDX: Tell me about your experience in the entertainment and technology sectors prior to Music Skins…
Vince Bartozzi: It’s kind of a unique story. I was going to Georgetown. One of my roommates, his godfather was the President of Atlantic Records, Craig Kallman, and basically, he was interning for Craig in the summers here in New York, at Atlantic, and the summer of our Junior year, he called me and said, “Look, they’re starting a label at Warner Music [Group]. It’s called Asylum; they’re looking for people to work there. You should come up and interview.” I came up and interviewed, and basically started that day. That was my Junior year summer. So my Senior year, I was traveling back and forth to [Washington DC], finishing up at school and working full-time at Asylum. I started off the first week, basically as an intern, and HR said, “If [he’s] not getting college credit, we gotta pay this guy, and they started paying me.” I was an A&R coordinator then was A&R research, and basically assistant to Joey I.E. and Todd Moscowitz up there for two-and-a-half years.
DX: Did you have a heavy hand in any of their Hip Hop releases?
VB: I was pretty much the person who found D4L. I had a hand with Webbie [click to read] and Paul Wall [click to read]. We were on the 24th floor of the Warner building when Elektra had just gone out of business, so there were four people up there to start Asylum. Everything from Lil Wyte, which was the first release we did, to Bun B [click to read], was the last album I was involved with – Trill.
DX: When went gold.
VB: I have a gold plaque. I think it is close to platinum. That was my first experience with music, although I had a small indie label in college, and I’d always been into it. That was my introduction into the world of music, especially Hip Hop. We thought we put the south on the map, as far as pop culture is concerned.
DX: As you’re leaving Asylum, this thing called the iPod gets really big. Tell me about how you looked at Music Skins; did it begin with a vehicle before the iPod?
VB: It’s interesting, ‘cause what happened at Asylum, six months into my being there, they brought on this gentleman Ron Spalding, who was VP of Sales for all of WEA. He became the GM of Asylum, and handled all the sales. He actually became my partner; we had a sales company. The whole purpose behind the sales company was to take the artists we were working with and brand them onto different products. We had a spinning room air freshener, we had a hanging air freshener, we were working with two or three clothing lines, and essentially taking Paul Wall, Mike Jones and putting their faces on these products and trying to sell them in the music retail. I started that company. One of the products we came across were these two guys who had just invented these skin products. They were doing them strictly for the new iPod, which was the big, bulky, heavy white iPod, and they were licensing imagery from [Vincent] Van Gogh and [Pablo] Picasso. We just thought that it would be a great idea and put these musicians and put ‘em on these skins. It was a thought for a while before there was any action, but him and I, from the beginning, always thought that these artists have such a brand, and the record company is spending so much money to create this brand, and they’re not capitalizing on it. From there, he left Asylum and went to Fontana. We kind of dissolved the partnership, but I had a good friend of mine who’s now my current partner; I’ve known him since I was four, and he wouldn’t let the idea die – Jed Seifert. We put a business-plan together, raised some capital, and the rest is kind of history.
DX: Nowadays, are you guys primarily doing skins for iPods, or are there other devices?
VB: Sure. At first it was iPods, but now it’s more of a focus on personal devices. We have all the iPods, the Razor phones, Sidekick II and III. We have three different models of Blackberry. We have the [Playstation] PSP, Nintendo DS, a couple different Guitar Hero skins. We make every size in laptop. That’s what it is right now. In the next 10 years, you’re gonna essentially have the computer in the palm of your hands. Being able to customize that and stylize yourself, whether having your favorite artist, band, musician, streetwear, that’s what Music Skins is all about – music and the culture behind music.
DX: You showed me your Barack Obama demo skin on your phone. The technology of these things have come such a long way. Logistically, how far have skins come from the days of those scary rhinestone Sidekick skins that they were selling years ago…
VB: The technology took over a year to develop and close to $100,000 before we printed a skin. That was me working hands-on with these two gentlemen who created the product. It’s a 3M patented product. You can’t buy this from 3M and go anywhere else in the world, other than North America to use this product. The technology behind it, the patents that 3M owns on this material make it very difficult. It’s not cheap to make, but again, the quality of the artists who’s putting their artwork on it and the customer who’s buying. You’re not gonna be disappointed. When you’re ready to switch your skin up or do what you do, it’s not gonna leave any residue on your device.
DX: Is this a technology and promotional vehicle that you find speaks moreso to Hip Hop than other genres?
VB: Not only is it balanced in genres of music, it’s balanced in all different types of entertainment and fashion. Anywhere where someone wants to show their personality, this product makes sense. Other than your clothes and your wallet, your devices are essential to leaving the house. This is the wave of the future. It just depends on who you’re talking to. We’ve had a lot of success with Rock music, Rap music. The best seller on our site is Exploding Dog. He’s this artist who has this site. You can write him a daily one-line email sentence, and he has four or five different characters, that he’ll actually take what you wrote him, for instance “I hate my job,” and he’ll put his own twist on it. The two designs that we sell right now are “I hate technology” and “Red Robot leaves the city.” He does this daily. He gets 50-100 emails daily and 100,000 people to his site daily. Really, the cool thing about him is, you look at his art, it’s very simple. But at the end of the day, the head of marketing at Def Jam has one on his iPhone. The art transcends things. Music Skins capitalizes on that.
DX: If I’m an artist reading this interview and I have decent buzz, a lot of MySpace friends and can sell CDs in my neighborhood, can I work with Music Skins?
VB: Sure. We want to be the one-stop for any artist, musician or band. We’ll work with anyone. Our minimums are low. Pricing is the same place as everybody else in the industry, if not, lower. But you really can’t go anywhere else and buy 10 units. If you want to design ‘em and send ‘em over, basically, we’ll print ‘em.
DX: You have in-house design as well for higher end projects too though?
VB: Oh yeah. We can help you with all that. We have a full design staff here. Most major labels send us their full imagery and we do all the layouts. It really depends where you’re at. If you know how to use Photoshop, we’ll send you the templates and you can lay them out yourself and we’ll print them.
DX: What’s your day-to-day like?
VB: It’s…[Laughs] I’m up at nine, and I’m basically working until I go to sleep, and that is 12 or one o’clock. In all, the money we’re making is going right back into the business. It’s a long road. These things don’t happen overnight. We have licensing deals that have taken a year to get done. It taught me a lot about patience and hard work. We signed some big deals in the last couple weeks.
DX: My next question exactly. What’s coming up?
VB: We just signed a deal from VIBE. You’ll actually be able to purchase Music Skins from Vibe.com. We have an ongoing relationship with Koch, so we have a Clipse [click to read] skin coming out with the [Re-Up Gang] CD. [Sighs] I wish I could give you more info, but we have deals on the table with two of the major management companies in the Hip Hop world. It would almost be everybody that anybody really cares about these days. It could actually happening before this hits the site. [Laughs] We have big projects with clothing companies like L-R-G, Mishka NYC, Lemar & Dauley, Money Clothing, Greedy Genius Sneakers. Those are projects that should be off the ground very soon. It’s really a continuing thing. We have 147 licensing deals that are on the table right now.
DX: In all the devices you have, what are your skins right now?
VB: Gotta go with the Barack Obama. I’ve got a Mishka NYC iBall that you can’t get. My iPhone has a skin that nobody will ever see [sighs] of Michael Jordan, a portrait by Virtual Mo. It’s elaborate, all one line that makes up a portrait of Michael Jordan. He was commissioned by Jordan, and went on the back of one of his customer jerseys.
For more information [click here].
