Keith Richards is a legend. He may be less than coherent as a result of years of “recreation” but what he says is still pretty interesting to anyone into music and rock ’n’ roll culture. Louis Vuitton have realised this and included a piece about him in their “Journeys” project, a series of travel themed films and photo essays featuring icons such as Richards, Mikhail Gorbechev and Catherine Deneuve.

The piece is a good watch with film-maker Annie Lebowitz making the most of her less than “focussed” interviewee through good edits and handycam style footage of Richards’ London. The real reason I’m talking about this here, though, is that this is a great example of branded content. Many of the musicians in our industry are interesting people with great tales to tell. With physical music sales declining and digital yet to catch up, artists are having to look at other ways to make money. Brands like Louis Vuitton benefit immeasurably from “aligning” themselves with characters such as Keith Richards. Pieces like this don’t tend to ram the brand down the user’s throat but instead focus on the content, so the deal’s not too bad for the punter either. I reckon we can expect to see more of this type of brand “enabled” music content in the future.