Spotify x FC Barcelona x Tyler, The Creator: novel, but eye-wateringly pricey

When Spotify replaced its logo on Barcelona's shirt with Tyler, The Creator's GOLF brand, it achieved something unusual. But what about the fans, asks Launch's Kevan Barber.

For El Clásico, Barcelona players will wear GOLF (Tyler, the Creator founded the American streetwear and fashion brand GOLF WANG) branding instead of Spotify. And the partnership extends well beyond the shirt.

Tyler (American rapper, singer, record producer, and fashion designer) directed campaign visuals, created an exclusive apparel range, launched the Copa de Golf event in Barcelona and expanded the collaboration into gaming with eFootball integrations.

Football sponsorship is worth billions globally each year, yet most executions remain remarkably conservative.

We can’t accuse Barcelona of that, but, in football, more than ever, shirt sponsors are under the microscope.

Fans are asking what sponsors are adding to a club and its fans, and when it goes wrong it’s a brand reputation issue (ahem, Vitality). Fortunately for Barcelona and its fans, Spotify got that brief. Or did it?

Plaudits to Spotify for taking a different approach, sure.

This is part of what’s now a long line of handing the front of shirt space to a music act, positioned as a joint and wholesome creative endeavour. Go a level deeper, though, and is that what Spotify’s achieving? Barely.

Tyler the Creator (and his huge Golf Wang brand), Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, Travis Scott, Coldplay and more have created iconic shirts, but each feels like another example of two industries (music and football) that have left fans by the wayside.

These are stadium performing acts charging hundreds to see them, teaming up with a football club that raised its season tickets by up to 35% season on season.

And guess how much this new range is? £499 for the shirt which just has GOLF in basically Helvetica, £499 for jacket, £69.99 for a basic t-shirt with the sort of graphics you’d see in a rip-off shirt at a holiday destination market.

I know, I know, it’s streetwear and I’m too old. But that’s the point, right? This is marketed at fans, or Barcelona and Tyler the Creator, but the price tags are ridiculous. It’s another money grab. At least the sticker is only £12.99 hey.

Barcelona’s a unique club, probably the only one that can even try and carry something like this off, and Spotify gets the opportunity there. If only the fans were part of the equation.