Timbaland & Swizz Beatz Reveal All About Deal To Bring Verzuz To Linda Yaccarino At X — Cannes Lions

Caroline Frost
·3 min read

Uber-producers and rappers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz have explained why they were persuaded to bring their Verzuz webcast series to the X platform via the distribution partnership revealed yesterday.

The pair sat down with X CEO Linda Yaccarino at Cannes Lions Festival Thursday afternoon, a day after Elon Musk addressed the fest, and Beatz kicked off by explaining: “X played a big role in Verzuz – it was the conversation. Now we’re bringing the visual to the conversation in one place. It was a natural fit to have Verzuz on X because it was there already. We’re bringing the visual and the comments together.”

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Beatz added that it was the double lure of being able to continue owning their IP and keep their own voice that sealed the deal.

“This needs to get spoken about more about the X platform, is how creatives have a voice – how Timbaland and I are allowed to have not only our voice but to give other creatives their voice when they are on the platform, whether they’re doing Verzuz or other platforms that we aim to do in the future,” he said.

Timbaland endorsed Beatz’s comments, hailing a “new era.”

“X allows you to be free to create your own business model that works for you. Creatives can enjoy their contact, own their content and be the boss of their content. It’s a new era,” he said. “It’s time to be disruptive, and we’re the perfect platform to be disruptive.”

The new platforms will launch next year and plans for Verzuz are expanding, Timbaland said.

“We started with songwriters, producers,” he went on. “Then we went to a lot of the bigger artists. This is just the beginning of the future, we plan on making X the biggest entertainment platform in the world. By doing that, it’s going to be a whole new outlet for people to own their IP and still be with a giant like X. This doesn’t exist in the business now. People ask, why X? Why not? This was the only place we found the freedom we can be how we want to be, and also invite other creatives.”

A visibly delighted Yaccarino stressed X’s “transparent dedication to grow the creator economy,” reporting:  “It’s been explosive on our platform, sharing revenues of more than $50M in a very short space of time but allowing creatives two things: to own their IP on multiple platforms so they can make a living, but also to grow the creative base.”

And she teased what’s coming next for the X platform, adding: “X the TV app, that’s when we talk about what comes afterwards. That’s a conversation we’re already having. Stay tuned.”

Yaccarino was speaking a day after X boss Musk, who spoke about free speech and the chance of the world falling victim to the dangers of AI.

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