In his book The Life of Things, the Love of Things, Italian philosopher Remo Bodei traces the role of objects in society over time. “It is evident that the value of the use and exchange of objects today has partially given way to their transformation into simulacra or their exhibition as mere status symbols,” he says. What separates an object from ... See more

In all of these cases, the “drop” is valuable because it is artificially scarce; fewer people would want it if everyone could have it.

3LAU turns to both the streetwear and fine-art industries for inspiration, because both of those worlds invert the mainstream music-industry model of low-margin ubiquity in favor of high-margin scarcity.

Creativity, point of view, taste, curatorial acumen and stylistic savvy are new units of consumption. Keywords are group buying and shared ownership.