Indie Label Definitive Jux Puts Its Hat On The Shelf
The financial realities of running an indie label at a time when far fewer are paying for music, is starting to take its toll. One of my favorite indie hip hop labels Definitive Jux will soon stop releasing new product and go on hiatus.
"We'll still have our website, we will still sell our catalog, merch and more as well as bring you news and updates on all our projects and artists. We will be releasing "KING OF HEARTS", a DEF JUX remix compilation, a 10 year anniversary retrospective and some other goodies." wrote EL-P the founder of Def Jux "But then as a traditional record label DEF JUX will effectively be put on hiatus. We are not closing, but we are changing. The process is already underway, and the last several months (for those wondering what the hell we've been up to) have been spent dealing with the technical aspects of wrapping up the label in it's current form and re-imagining our collective and individual futures."
Its a sad reality…I really hope El-p just begins reissuing the catalog with tons of unique limited edition products, variable pricing and bundles.
Def Jux catalog, fanbase and imaginations are big enough to keep upselling merch/content with higher margins. THis is there chance to really reorganize and come up with something innovative!
Cant wait to see what they come up with.
I have been waiting for this. A lot of these hiphop indy labels that got started in the late 90’s early 00’s, to me, appear to have way too much “pork” on their roster. Half of their current artists probably can’t sell more than 5k albums. And i’d bet only Aesop Rock, Cage, El-P and Del can sell over 10k. Honestly, that should be their label and all the rest should have never been signed.
^ All this is said purely with profits in mind. Friendships, who actually has potential, etc – Is pretty irrelevant.
Marjoe —
It’s hard to consistently run a label w/ no artist development. All those names will still sell albums regardless but when you deal w/ established artists the deals look distinctly different than those you have w/ new artists